This year’s South Jersey Diamond Classic is blending new and old | Phil Anastasia

It’s always a tricky thing, balancing tradition with innovation.

It’s always a delicate process, honoring the past while pushing into the future.

Give the South Jersey Baseball Coaches Association credit for injecting new energy into the Joe Hartmann Diamond Classic while maintaining the prestigious tournament’s ties to its old ways.

That’s not an easy double play to turn.

The new format introduced this year has a chance to take what has been one of the best things about South Jersey baseball to another level.

But the coaches and tournament officials have kept the character of the single-elimination tournament, with its inclusive approach and March Madness-style opportunities for smaller, less-powerful programs.

Two big changes mark the event this year. One is a simple time change, but the other is a subtle but significant decision to create seeding for the first time in the tournament’s 46-year history.

The event will start earlier than in the past and -- weather permitting -- end earlier than in the past. Those are good developments, especially the move of the title game to Wednesday night, May 15, in place of Sunday night, which this year would have been May 19.

Those four days are huge.

For years, the format of the tournament, with a flurry of games in the final weekend -- with quarterfinals on Saturday, semifinals on Sunday afternoon and the final on Sunday night -- was a source of concern for many coaches.

They rightly saw the tournament putting a huge burden on pitching staffs on the brink of the state tournament and perceived the format as particularly unfair to public-school programs, which usually start their sectional tournaments on the day after the final.

The earlier start and finish should alleviate those concerns, provided the weather cooperates. Under the new format, a public school could throw its ace in the title game on May 15 and have him available for full duty for the state tournament opener on May 20.

The other change has the potential to create some of the more intriguing matchups in recent tournament history.

Under the old format, where teams were randomly placed into brackets, top teams often would meet in the earlier rounds. It wasn’t unusual to see the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in South Jersey squaring off in the quarterfinals, if not in the opener.

Seeding creates a true tournament feel to the event. There still is ample representation of every league and conference, and still opportunities for lower seeds such as Haddon Township and Buena to shock the world -- or South Jersey, anyway.

But if form holds, the quarterfinals and semifinals could be a splendid showcase.

On May 11 at Deptford, we could see Cherry Hill West vs. Haddonfield or Moorestown in one quarterfinal, with Eastern vs. Gloucester Catholic -- in a rematch of the 2016 final -- in another quarterfinal. With the winners meeting later in the afternoon.

The same day at Washington Township -- I already can smell burgers on the grill at both sites -- could feature St. Augustine vs. Shawnee and Triton or Delran vs. Bishop Eustace in the quarterfinals, with the winners squaring off in the semifinals.

But those games would only happen if the tournament follows the chalk. That’s not likely. We can expect upset and surprises, first-round shockers won by visiting teams who walk to the plate with both bats and lower-seed chips on their shoulders.

That’s the beauty of baseball, of all sports. That’s part of the rich tradition of South Jersey’s best in-season tournament, and something that a little nudge into the future won’t change.

Saturday

Audubon at Gloucester Catholic, 3 p.m.

Monday

Haddon Twp. at Cherry Hill West, 3:45 p.m.

Delran at Triton, 3:45 p.m.

Moorestown at Haddonfield, 4 p.m.

Tuesday

Highland at Shawnee, 3:45 p.m.

Mainland at Eastern, 4 p.m.

Buena at Bishop Eustace, 4 p.m.

Wednesday

Trenton Catholic at St. Augustine, 4 p.m.