5TH ANNUAL NATURCHEM INVITATIONAL STARTS TODAY

Tournament has produced state champions each year since inception.

THOMAS GRANT JR.
chroniclesports@yahoo.com
Posted 3/4/20

In 5 short years, the Naturchem Invitational has become THE preseason baseball tournament in South Carolina. 

The joint effort of director Jeff Parsons and head coaches Mark Bonnette of …

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5TH ANNUAL NATURCHEM INVITATIONAL STARTS TODAY

Tournament has produced state champions each year since inception.

Posted


In 5 short years, the Naturchem Invitational has become THE preseason baseball tournament in South Carolina. 
The joint effort of director Jeff Parsons and head coaches Mark Bonnette of River Bluff and Brian Hucks of Lexington, the event has annually drawn the Palmetto State's top players and teams. It has also each year produced a state championship team or runner-up:
2016 - Belton-Honea Path 
2017 - A.C. Flora (won tournament)
2018 - Dorman & Airport (won tournament & state runner-up)
2019 - Dutch Fork 

"It's hand downs, in my opinion, one of the best tournaments in the Southeast," Airport head coach Tim Perry said. "It's definitely 1 of the best preseason tournaments because an eventual state champion is going to come out of it. We're excited to be part of the field. We're excited to play people that we're going to play and, hopefully, it will put us on a part to get there again."
For Bonnette and Hucks, the Naturchem Invitational is great preparation for the rigors of competing in Region 5-5A. Argubly 1 of the state's top baseball regions, it has produced the last 3 Lower State champions and this year's defending titleholder Dutch Fork. 
"You understand you're playing great teams," Bonnette said. "You understand that you come here and it's going to get you ready for not only your region play, which for us is an amazing gauntlet, but it gets you ready for the playoffs."
"A lot of times, if you don't play good teams, you can win games but not learn anything about your team and get away with some things that you probably shouldn't have won with. So we know at this event, if we don't pitch well, if we don't good defense, if we don't situationally hit, we're not going to win baseball games. If we don't do it now, we're not going to do that in our region."
Lexington and River Bluff kicked off the tournament Wednesday with home games against Camden and Lugoff-Elgin, respectively. Each participant will take part in 3 games with the final game set for Sunday in The Swamp.
Saturday at 7 pm,  the annual Home Run Derby will take place at River Bluff. Defending champion Alex Urban of the Gators will defend his title among 11 other competitors. All proceeds will go towards the Saint Baldrick's Foundation for pediatric cancer research.
Games will be streamed at www.rbhsgatorgameday.com. Visit www.naturcheminvitational.org for schedules and to click Instragram, Twitter (#naturchembaseball), Facebook and Youtube links to follow the results.
 

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