ELM GROVE — A slimmed down version of the 37th annual Beast of the East Baseball Tournament will be unleashed in the Ohio Valley over the Fourth of July weekend.

Thirty teams from the tri-state area and one from Canada highlight this year’s three-age-division event, including Wheeling Post 1 Varsity returning to the tournament after a summer away.

According to Tournament Director and co-founder Bo McConnaughy, seven fields will be used during the four-day event, ranging from the northern panhandle of West Virginia to Marshall County and eastern Ohio. Four of the facilities have artificial turf surfaces — in case of inclement weather.

“We’re down three teams from last year, but we had a few Canadian teams drop out for various reasons,” McConnaughy said last week in his office at the Elm Grove Civics building.

“The problem is, after COVID, and even before COVID when we had 164 teams they all had sponsors,” he explained. “As the (number of) tournaments grew and teams started traveling more they lost their sponsorships and had to start raising their own money. Another thing is that some of the teams that came here took our model and started hosting their own tournaments.”

Games will be played on turf at Wheeling Park High School’s Patriots Field; Weir High School; Oak Glen High School’s Suzan L. Smith Field of Dreams Complex in New Manchester and at Harrison Central High School’s Mazeroski Field inside Sally Buffalo Park in Cadiz. Dirt surfaces include Monarch Field at John Marshall High School in Glen Dale; Patterson Field in Elm Grove and Bellaire High School’s John Blacker Field in Neffs.

He said the 14U Division, which has six teams, will play at Patterson Field, John Marshall High School and John Blacker Field in Neffs. The 16U — has 13 teams broken into White and Red divisions — will use Mazeroski Field, John Marshall, Oak Glen and Patterson Field, while the 19U — which has two 5-team divisions (Blue and Gold) is set for Weir High and Wheeling Park.

“That’s another big factor in why our attendance has dwindled,” McConnaughy said of the lack of turf fields available in the Ohio Valley at sites willing to host games. “Most of the tournaments nationwide are played on turf surfaces. We need another facility somewhere in Wheeling with turf fields that we can use. I don’t mean any disrespect to anyone, but that’s the truth.”

He said the decision to not use Wheeling University diamond at the I-470 J.B. Chambers Complex in Elm Grove was made by himself after watching a 14U game there last summer.

“The center fielder was playing right behind second base. It’s too big of a field for them,” he noted.

Games are scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. on July 3-5 and will be played with a two-hour time limit. Games are set for 10:30 a.m., 1 p.m., 3:30 p.m. and 6 p.m.

Sunday, July 6 is reserved for the playoffs, with quarterfinals at 8 a.m., semifinals at 10:30 and finals at 1 p.m. The top 4 teams in the 14U bracket qualify for semifinal action with No. 1 meeting No. 4 and No. 2 facing No. 3. In the 16U and 19U brackets, the top three seeded teams in each division qualify. The No. 1 seed in each division receives a first-round bye. The No. 2 and No. 3 seeds will play in a cross-bracket format, with the higher seeded team having the choice between home or away.

Tiebreakers include overall record, head-to-head results, runs allowed per inning played and runs scored per inning played.

The 14U playoffs will be held at Weir High. The 16U are set for Mazeroski Field and the 19U at Wheeling Park.