Warwick North Little League hosted its annual Jaxon Marocco and Sally Eddy friendship tournaments last weekend, hosting players from around the area for some late summer fun.

Jaxon Marocco was just 22 months old when he passed away from Nieman-Pick Disease in 2016, and the funds of the tournament go directly toward his memorial foundation. He was the grandson of Elmwood Sports owner Steve Marocco, who helped North organize the first tournament seven years ago.

As a friendship tournament, it is played with modified rules and is not affiliated with all-stars, which has made it a popular program since its inception.

“It has always meant to be a friendship league and not related to all-stars. It’s meant for players that are not going to get the opportunity to be all-stars,” said North president Sean Wiggins. “It’s an incredibly special tournament and means a lot to us. To give back to such a great family, it means so much. To be able to give back to that family and these teams, it means the world to us.”

The Jaxon Marocco tournament is run entirely by volunteers, including the umpires, who are do not receive compensation for their time. Seeing the North family gather together to raise funds and spend their time at the pit has been a great tradition, according to Wiggins.

“These teams are playing for charity. Seeing the community come together to help, to buy raffle tickets, it’s great. That tournament along with our Challenger program, those make us proud the most. It goes beyond baseball,” said Wiggins.

The Sally Eddy tournament is geared for the minor leaguers as well. The proceeds of the tournament go toward North. It is one of the largest fundraising efforts of the year for the league.

Up next for North is this week’s best-of-three city series against crosstown rival Continental American, who also took part of this past weekend’s events.

Wiggins is thankful for another summer of fun as the season winds down.

“(The city series) means a lot to me and we’re excited to have the north versus south element. We had that with all-stars and the Marocco and Sally Eddy tournaments. It’s great to see. The kids all know each other and it’s fun to watch. The teams are super excited to play,” said Wiggins. “It was (an) incredibly successful (summer). We had a lot of kids playing this summer that is leading into the fall. Our kids played hard, the teams played hard.”