Performance Baseball Texas 18U earns spot in Connie Mack World Series

Performance Baseball Texas 18U earned its place in the Connie Mack World Series with a 5-2 win over the Texas Angels in Franklin, Texas, and now heads to Ricketts Park for Farmington’s 62nd year as host. The tournament runs July 23 through Aug. 1 and will put 12 teams of 16- to 18-year-old players in front of college officials, pro scouts, friends and family in one of the country’s best-known amateur baseball settings.

For San Juan County, the event reaches far beyond the foul lines. Farmington has said the World Series depends on host families, volunteers, city staff, vendors and fans, a network that turns the annual tournament into a citywide effort rather than a single-weekend sports stop. The 2025 event drew more than 200 volunteers, a sign of how deeply the series is woven into the community around Ricketts Park, the Farmington Recreation Center and the rest of the city’s summer calendar.

The American Amateur Baseball Congress, or AABC, which runs the tournament and is based in Farmington, was founded in Chicago in March 1935. Farmington’s history with the series dates to 1965, when local businessmen traveled to the AABC annual meeting in Chicago and won the bid to bring the Connie Mack World Series from Springfield, Illinois, to the city.

Performance Baseball reached the World Series through a qualifying run in a Four-game-guarantee, double-elimination bracket in the Five Tool circuit. The winner received a paid berth and travel stipend to Farmington. Tri-City Record identified recent Spring Hill High graduate Mason Barnes as one of the program’s key performers, underscoring how the road to Ricketts Park has already featured players with ties to familiar South Texas high school programs and a roster built for a national showcase.