“After years of playing tournament baseball on the road, Bainbridge gets a chance to play host, as the Babe Ruth 13-year-old state tournament comes to the island July 19-24.This has been a huge community effort, tournament director Geoff Roach said. Not only will it be a lot of fun, but it gets the team into the state tournament automatically, and one step closer to the regional (tournament).The nine-team, double-elimination tournament will take place at the BHS field over six days. Bainbridge meets Ferndale in the tournament opener at 6 p.m. Wednesday.Roach said that in February, the Bainbridge Babe Ruth board of directors was approached by the statewide organization, informed that no site had been selected for this year’s 13-year-old tournament, and asked if Bainbridge would be interested. Although the island has never hosted such an event, local Babe Ruthers agreed to give it a try, Roach said.Being the host involves a substantial commitment of both money and time.The tournament budget is about $10,000, he said. We have umpire fees for 16 or 17 games, we’ve made up T-shirts calling our tournament ‘The Battle on Bainbridge,’ and things like that.’The organization will cover expenses by selling tickets and ballpark food.Some of the parents have taken the food-handling course to get permits for the food stands, Roach said.As a further fund-raiser, the team is hosting a car wash and bake sale today from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Village Chevron.We hope we can break even on the tournament, Roach said.Roach said he expects each of the visiting teams to bring about 50 people to the island – 18 players, coaches, plus parents and well-wishers.We should have about 500 people coming for this, he said.Most of the visitors will stay in area hotels, and because this is the height of tourist season, finding enough rooms wasn’t easy. Organizers had to go to Silverdale to get enough rooms, Roach said.Although it’s called the state tournament, that is actually a misnomer, because states like Washington with a large number of Babe Ruth teams have more than one state tournament.Bainbridge is hosting the northern Washington tournament, while the southern Washington tournament will be elsewhere.But the winner of the Bainbridge tourney will go on to multi-state regional play at Helena, Montana in August.While the volunteers get ready to host the tournament, the Bainbridge team gets ready to make a run for the title.The Bainbridge team is composed of Barrett Kanyer, Jon Williams, Kevin Roach, Ranger Sciacca, Blake Jensen, Jordan Schager, David Lantz, Matt Koehler, Kristian Patterson, Tyler Hannon, David Vander Hoek, Jeremy Bjornson, Matt Frazee, Chase Sandbloom, Kris Patterson, David Wesolowski and Grant Leslie. Mike Patterson is the manager, and Geoff Roach, the tournament director, is a Bainbridge coach.The nucleus of this team finished fifth out of 200 Little League teams in the state last year, Roach said. So you’ve got to feel good about our chances. We’re not big, but we are athletic.The other teams competing will come from South Kitsap, North Kitsap, Ferndale, Eastmont, Eastlake, Wenatchee, Oak Harbor and Othello.”