Alex Orenczuk
•7/13/2026
FORT MYERS, Fla. (WINK) — A national championship was on the line Monday at JetBlue Park, but triple-digit feels-like temperatures gave players and parents another opponent.
Perfect Game Regional Event Coordinator Ben St. Peter said the tournament brought together some of the country’s top young baseball talent.
“This is our 21st annual BCS National Championship,” St. Peter said. “We have 70-plus teams from all over the country, including Ohio, New Hampshire, Texas, Maryland, here in Florida, competing in our best metal bat tournament of the summer.”
The games continued despite the heat, forcing families to make hydration and cooling part of their game plan.
“We try to push hydration before he even gets out on the field,” baseball mom Nicholle Anderson said. “We have cooling towels for the kids. They have fans, and yesterday, another mom was awesome. She bought those electrolyte salt tablets, and they were popping salt tablets to make it through the day.”
Players also developed their own routines for getting through games and recovering between them.
“I just grabbed my cooler and dumped the water on my head to try to keep cool,” Levi Anderson said. “I might ask for like one or two Gatorades and probably a bottle of water.”
There was little relief on the sidelines, where parents gathered under tents with portable fans, cooling towels and cold drinks.
“Torture,” Virginia Beach baseball mom Dora Mendez said.
“It’s actually incredible to see the boys out there just rally and have fun and the heat not even bother them, while we are sitting here sweating with fans in the shade,” said Jennifer Nacchio, also from Virginia Beach.
Despite the conditions, players kept swinging as teams continued their chase for a national championship.
