Atwater Easter Tournament kicks off on Monday

One of the longest running Easter baseball tournaments will get underway on Monday.

This year marks the 58th year of the Fran Oneto/Atwater-Winton Lions Easter Tournament. This year’s field consists of eight teams, including Atwater (2-13) and Livingston (9-8). Every game of the tournament will be played at Memorial Ballpark in Atwater.

The Falcons and Wolves will play the night game on the opening night at 7 p.m.

“We played Livingston in the ‘Sweet Potato Joe Game’ which is a great time for a good cause and a way to honor Sweet Potato Joe,” Atwater coach Jarrod Pimentel said. “The opening night of the Easter tournament is always a lot of fun. There’s a lot of fans from the area that come out to the game. It’s a lot of fun for the kids.”

Livingston defeated Atwater 14-7 earlier this season. The Wolves are led offensively by Jose Torres, who is hitting .357 with a team high nine RBIs. Livingston has also had strong pitching from Cesar Avila and Omar Aguilar.

The Falcons are led offensively by Cristian Curiel and Jacob Weiss. Curiel is hitting .333 and is tied for the team lead with 10 runs. Weiss is hitting .333 with two home runs and 11 RBIs as a freshman.

The tournament is split into two pools. Joining Atwater and Livingston in Pool A is St. Joseph Notre Dame of Alameda and Elliot Christian of Lodi.

Pool B is comprised of Mountain House of Tracy, San Leandro, Jerry Manuel of Sacramento and Merrill West of Tracy.

The first game will be on Monday at 10 a.m. with Mountain House (5-9) facing West (3-10). At 1 p.m., Mountain House will play Jerry Manuel.

The 4 p.m. game will feature St. Joseph (7-4) against Elliot Christian (5-3).

The first three days of the tournament will be pool play. The championship game of the tournament is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Thursday.

This story was originally published April 14, 2017 at 10:09 AM with the headline "Atwater Easter Tournament kicks off on Monday."