Post 59 brings experience from recent tourneys to July event

Milford’s Fino Field is gearing up for the 2026 American Legion State Tournament, the fourth time Post 59 has hosted the state’s final eight legion baseball teams in the past decade.

“I think we are in good shape,” said Cindy Stulac, the president of the Milford Legion Baseball Club. “We are excited. We are very, very excited.”

Milford hosted the state tournament in 2017, 2019, and most recently in 2022. Stulac said there are numerous meetings scheduled for July to discuss volunteer roles and responsibilities, as well as meetings with the Parks Department and more than a dozen interns who have been part of the extensive planning process.

The tournament is scheduled to begin July 25 and a champion will be crowned on July 29. The format is double elimination and Milford, as the host, will be one of the eight teams in the field. The team will have the chance to play its way into the tournament, and started the year with a blistering 12-2 record.

“The team is in great shape and doing what they need to do,” Stulac said.

The main theme Stulac is stressing heading into this, her fourth state tournament, is community involvement.

“From my perspective, what I look for is community support,” she said. “When I came in, I found that there were a lot of people who didn’t know who we were anymore. I am trying to do a lot of marketing and social media to get everybody involved.”

Stulac said the role of the board is to preserve the legacy of Milford Legion baseball, which has been one of the most successful programs in the state in its nearly 100 years in existence. She is hoping to spread the word about the states so that people from outside the eight fan bases, which have teams in the field, will also come to Fino and take in the action.

“It’s an amazing thing to see these 18-year-olds playing competitive baseball and some of them are truly excellent,” Stulac said. “My goal is to get even more people than we have had in the past down to Fino.”

The deep bench of volunteers is expected to include representatives from the various companies that partner with the team, as well as parents of players, nonprofit organizations like the Milford Lions Club, interns, and what Stulac called some of their “regulars” who traditionally come out and support the team, even if they do not personally know any of the players.

“It’s not just a baseball legacy,” Stulac said. “It’s a community legacy.”