As soon as the inaugural James T. Birkenstock Strike Out Diabetes Classic ended last year, planning began for the second.

The event will return to the Hudson Valley Sportsdome in Milton on Saturday, beginning at 8 a.m. to raise money for Juvenile Diabetes. Last year’s tournament raised $4,000 from donations, raffles and admission.

James Birkenstock was the father of Marlboro High School sophomores Kalista and Jameson Birkenstock. He died suddenly of diabetic shock on July 5, 2018, after suffering from Type 1 Diabetes his entire life. Kalista, a strong softball player on the Marlboro softball team, proposed the idea of setting up the tournament in her father’s honor and to education people about Type 1 Diabetes.

Last year’s tournament was something out of a storybook, as Kalista and her Empire State Huskies’ 14U team – playing in a 16U tournament, ran the table going 5-0 in the tournament. They won the tournament title with a 3-1 win over the New Jersey Rebels.

The Huskies 14U team graduated to the 16U division and will return to the tournament as the defending champions.

Due to James Birkenstock’s love of cars, the two divisions will be named “Jeep” and “Ram.” The Jeep division will comprise of the Empire State Huskies 16U Select, Beacon Extreme 16U, NY Nighthawks, and the LI Surge Gold.

The Ram division will be made up of the NJ Vipers, Dutchess Debs 07, Empire State Huskies Prospects, and Empire State Huskies 16U Cefaloni.

Local players will include Birkenstock, Alexa Pavese of Highland, and Valley Central’s Madison Sicardo.

Each game will be 80 minutes and played in a drop-dead revert format. If an inning is not complete when the time limit is up, the game is decided by the score of the last completed inning. Pool-play home teams will be determined by a coin toss.

The top two teams in each division will advance to the playoffs.

Pool play games will have 1 umpire and there will be two umpires for the playoff games.

Tiebreakers will be head-to-head, followed by runs allowed, and finally runs scored. The Ram Division will play first.

Second Annual James Birkenstock Schedule
Ram Division
Huskies Prospects vs. NJ Vipers, 8 a.m. (Field 1)
Debs vs. Huskies Cefaloni, 8 a.m. (Field 2)
Huskies Prospects vs. Debs, 9:30 a.m. (Field 1)
Vipers vs. Huskies Cefaloni, 9:30 a.m. (Field 2)
Debs vs. Vipers, 2 p.m. (Field 1)
Huskies Cefaloni vs. Huskies Prospects, 2 p.m. (Field 2)

Jeep Division
Huskies Select vs. Beacon Extreme, 11 a.m. (Field 1)
Nighthawks vs. LI Surge, 11 am. (Field 2)
Huskies Select vs. Nighthawks, 12:30 p.m. (Field 1)
LI Surge vs. Beacon Extreme, 12:30 p.m. (Field 2)
Huskies Select vs. LI Surge, 3:30 p.m. (Field 1)
Nighthawks vs. Extreme, 3:30 p.m. (Field 2)

Consolation Game
Ram 3 vs. Jeep 3, 5 p.m. (Field 1)
Ram 4 vs. Jeep 4, 5 p.m. (Field 2)

Semifinals
Ram 2 vs. Jeep 1, 6:30 p.m. (Field 1)
Jeep 2 vs. Ram 1, 6:30 p.m. (Field 2)

Championship
Ram 2/Jeep 1 winner vs. Jeep 2/Ram 1 winner, 8 p.m. (Field 1)