Colt World Series kicks off Thursday evening in Marion, Ill.

MARION, Ill. (KFVS) - One Heartland city is hosting the 2022 Colt World Series.

Ten teams from across the world will be participating in the series Thursday, July 28 through Tuesday night, August 2.

At the ballpark on Thursday afternoon, you could feel the sense of excitement building up to the start of the world series.

Thursday night, things kick off with a home run derby and base running competition. Both the city of Marion and Colt World Series leaders are thrilled to have this back in Marion.

“This year in comparison to last year, there’s going to be a lot more energy in this stadium,” said Rachel Stroud, Colt World Series chair member.

Ten teams from Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Germany, Japan and the U.S. are trying to become Colt World Series champions.

These teams and their families all make an impact on the local economy.

“It’s great for our region as a whole to have beds filled at our hotels, people are sleeping in Williamson County that means they’re eating in Williamson County, that means they’re shopping in Williamson County,” said Stroud.

The 16U World Series just got extended to stay in Marion through 2027.

City leaders are thrilled to be able to keep this event at Rent One Park.

“We keep hearing feedback from these teams as they travel here, this is the place they love to come. It’s the Midwest right, what do we have to offer? Apparently, a lot. Cause these teams love traveling here,” said City of Marion Chief of Staff Cody Moake.

Leaders say they are wanting the player’s experience to be as close to the big leagues as possible.

“Because we’ve built or we feel like we’ve built a really great player experience, we feel like the community’s behind us like they never have been before, for all those reasons, we want to keep building on that year after year,” Moake said.

And for everyone in the southern Illinois community, they are making the ballpark experience even better than years past.

“We’ve also got giveaways, brought to you by some fantastic local businesses, that’ll happen at 5 p.m. every night at the front gate. We’ve got 500 things each evening to give away, fireworks will be back,” said Stroud.

Things kick off Thursday around 6:30 p.m., weather depending. The first ballgame kicks off Friday morning at 9 a.m. and the championship game is set for Tuesday at 8 p.m.

If you are coming to the ballpark, single day tickets are $5 and weeklong tickets are $25 cash only.

For more information on the Colt League World Series, you can find that on their website.

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