I am curious about everyone’s opinion, what is the “Best Elite” 18u Tournament in, Ohio, Kentucky, PA and WV?

Good Question. I'll give you a few ideas off the top of my head but it would be hard for me to say which is the best. All the ones I will list are heavily scouted by colleges and the pros. There is no implied ranking in the following list.

1) WV - Beasts of the East (I believe open to legion and non-legion teams)

2) Pa - They run a statewide legion tournament each summer culminating in a State Championship. Don't think this is open to out of state teams however. luvbb?

3) Youngstown Connie Mack Qualifier - This is an invitation only or play-in tournament with about 100 teams and with about 6 getting invited to Midland to battle for the right to go to the Connie Mack World Series in New Mexico. Midland usually ends up winning the tournament they host. They are a national super elite team like East Cobb.

4) CABA High School World Series - Held annually in the Cleveland suburbs with several high schools participating to host all the different teams. This is a national and international tournament. My son was discovered here by his current college. A team from Illinois was here at the time named Illinois Sports Academy. The infamous gotwood4sale had a son on that team. I believe I stood right next to gotwood and didn't even know it

5) Not sure about Kentucky - anyone?

34/33 - In thinking back on the summers of my son's HS ball, we didn't play in too many tournaments here in KY. Legion ball or Connie Mack don't exists in my area. I'm sure there are some tournaments held that have quality teams participate, but I'm just not familiar with them.

I will tell you that last summer, there were only two tournaments that my son's team participated in that had teams that could play against them. One was a tournament in Cincninnati, OH, but I'm unable to remember the name. The other tournament was the Indiana Heat tournament. It had a very good team, Columbus Sharks, from OH.

I think the "flavor" of any tourney can change from year to year, by what teams participate.

Good question and hopefully someone can have some better info than me for you.

Last year my son's summer team played in June at the Nischiwitz Tournament which is held at Wright State Univ. and about 4 other sites in the Dayton area. This draws teams from all over the midwest and was will attended by the college coaches. Also a good tournment over the 4th of July weekend is held by the Indiana Bulls in Indianapolis. Most of the games are played at the colleges in the Indy area including Butler, Marion, Anderson and Purdue.

Tournaments do change from year to year but another good tournament is the Black Swamp which is held in the Bowling Green, Ohio area.

The team my son is playing for this summer is a Legion and Connie Mac team so we will be going to a lot of new places. We will be at the Connie Mac tournament in Youngstown that ClevelandDad mentioned.

Gee I played in that tournment XX years ago!

Buckeye,

Those are all excellent tournaments you mention. My son played in the Indiana Bulls tournament last summer. They were originally scheduled for Black Swamp but ended up going to Midland instead. I have heard of the Wright State one but we never participated. There was also one as well in Michigan last summer I beleive the Great Lakes tournament? and it was held on the campuses of Michigan, Eastern Michigan and other universities in the area.

The Columbus Sharks are a well-known travel organization in Ohio and traditionally field excellent baseball teams. I believe they use the name Sharks for different age groups as well. Some of those kids have played their whole lives together and with the Sharks organization.

Man all these baseball torunaments are starting to come flooding into my mind right now.

In Athens Ohio, where Ohio University is, they hold at least two excellent American Legion tournaments each year that are well-scouted. One was an open tournament and the other was based on your league standings. We really enjoyed our trips down there. Highly recomended.

The Athens 4th of July Tournament is open, but the other one you mentioned is the State Legion Tournament, open only to qualifying state legion teams -- very well run, however.

A couple of others:
Troy holds a good tournament in mid-June. Good facilities, lots of recuiters (especially Ohio, Indiana and KY colleges)

Worthington (OH) 4th of July Baseball Classic -- this is a HUGE tournament played at all age levels, including 18u. They attract teams from all over, including Canada.

PA Bellefont Showdown (or something like that), near State College. Good competition.

We were in the Nischwitz as well and have been for a while. Very well run and competitve tourney. We also played a game at Dayton U.