Craig Daily Press

Craig — Triple Crown Sports, a national organization, seeks to “focus on something positive in the face of increasing talk about negativity in youth sports,” according to a news release.

Craig will soon get a first-hand look at what the organization is talking about.

Triple Crown, headquartered in Fort Collins, involves more than 800 teams in girls fast pitch softball and 1,850 baseball teams in its Colorado Baseball Series.

The Mountain Magic portion of the series — hosted throughout locations in the Yampa Valley — begins Thursday with girls fast pitch leading things off.

In Craig, girls teams play Thursday through Sunday at two locations: Loudy-Simpson Park, 500 S. Ranney St., and Woodbury Sports Complex, 350 S. Mack Lane.

The boys play in town beginning June 20 and play back-to-back weekends ending June 29. The boys also are scheduled to play at Loudy-Simpson and Woodbury.

Overall, 115 girls teams and 116 boys teams have signed up — spreading the tournaments across seven sites along the Yampa Valley.

The two parks in Craig join Hayden (two fields), Oak Creek (one field) and Ski Town Park, Strawberry Park and Howelson Hill Complex in Steamboat Springs, as game sites.

Splitting the event between four towns is something Colorado Baseball Series Co­­ordinator Rogelio Alvarado said Triple Crown was after when it booked the tournament for the 13th consecutive year in the Yampa Valley.

“There is more to the event than just baseball and softball,” he said. “We set up the events in vacation-type towns so it’s a fun event for the teams and their families together.

“Baseball attracts them, but the beauty of Northwest Colorado keeps them here.”

It’s not solely about the vacation for the teams, though.

The girls tournament is broken into eight brackets according to age, with the top two teams in each bracket advancing to the fast pitch World Series beginning July 7 in Park City, Utah.

The boys tourney is divided into 30 brackets, with the top two teams in the 9-and-younger and 14-and-younger age groups advancing to the Triple Crown World Series beginning July 21 in Steamboat Springs.

The top two teams in the 15-, 16- and 18-and-younger age groups advance to the Triple Crown World Series beginning July 28 in Grand Junction.

The top two teams in every age group also advance to Triple Crown’s other championship events in Las Vegas, Myrtle Beach, S.C., and St. Augustine, Fla.