The weather has been great for the fans in the stands at youth baseball. Top left: Bradley Wilson of the Twins gave his best performance of the year on the mound at the Silver Bay doubleheader. In the first game he pitched 3 innings, striking out all 9 batters he faced. Above: Yankees catcher Lucas Sheils kept his eye on the ball in a recent Parent Pitch game. Right: Up to bat for the Little League Dodgers is Levi Sheils.
July has brought warm weather and hot baseball. We have had several very well played games in the July heat.
Exciting battles in Parent Pitch
The first parent pitch games in July had the Lions versus the Thunderbirds. These two teams are battling for the best record and their game was just that—a battle.
Both teams scored big in the first inning. The Lions scored 5 runs with the Thunderbirds answering back with 4 runs of their own. The next two innings were much of the same and it came down to the Thunderbirds last at bat. With the Thunderbirds threatening to take the lead and the game, the Lions defense answered. The Lions stopped the Thunderbirds rally short, aided by two big fielding stops by Amy Carpenter. She calmly stopped the ball and fired it to Noah Furcht at first base.
Plays like this by both teams made for a great game as the Lions held on to win 10– 9.
The other parent pitch game was much of the same. In that game the Yankees were matched up against the Lumberjacks. This game was more of an offensive battle as both teams hit the ball all over the field. The Lumberjacks’ John Huskey and Kole Anderson both hit home runs for the Lumberjacks. The Yankees’ Tate Crawford and Jacob Dorr both reached base three times scoring each time. When the dust settled and both teams had battled hard for three innings the Yankees ended up with a hard-fought victory 14 – 12. Coaches on both sides were very happy with the play of their teams.
Close scores for Little League
In the last 10 days of Little League, we have been treated to some great baseball.
Close, hard-fought, low-scoring games have been the rule with only one exception. That exception came in the first Cub and Dodgers duel. It was not the Cubs’ night as they faced the Dodgers a bit short handed. They played hard but could not score any runs against Ethan Sporn as he pitched 3 scoreless innings with 9 strike outs.
Josh Prom and Pete Sutton finished up the game both pitching very well striking out 5 more batters.
Cameron Roy scored the Cubs’ only run as they lost 10 – 1.
Luke Johnson, Ethan Sporn, and Josh Prom all went 2 -3 from the plate for the Dodgers.
The Dodgers and Cubs next match up was a completely different game even though it had the same result—a Dodgers’ victory. The Dodgers’ Ethan Sporn pitched 4 scoreless innings and the Dodgers went into the bottom of the5thwitha1–0lead.
However, the Cubs left the bottom ofthe5thwitha2–1leadwithonly one more at bat for the Dodgers. Colton Furlong drove in two runs in the bottom of the 5th and the Dodgers walked off the field with another win. Andrew Miller for the Cubs pitched a complete game only allowing three runs to a very good Dodgers’ club. Mason Lilijestrand of the Cubs reached base safely three times in the game.
Above: Lion Brayden Schmidt heads for the base in a recent Parent Pitch game.
The other team in our league is the Twins and they have played some great games lately. First they were in Silver Bay for a double header. They first played the Silver Bay Yankees.
Bradley Wilson of the Twins gave his best performance of the year on the mound. In the first game he pitched 3 innings, striking out all 9 batters he faced. The Yankee pitching was very good as well as the Twins could only muster 2 runs in the game.
However, that would be enough, because Jake Bilben only allowed one run across the plate in relief of Bradley. Jake had several strike outs which sealed the victory for the Twins.
In game two Bradley Wilson again started on the mound for the Twins and he continued his great night striking out many of the batters he faced. Tristan Bockovich performed very well in his relief role for the Twins.
The Silver Bay Twins only scored 2 runs in the game which ended in a 6– 2 victory for our Twins.
The Twins next faced the Dodgers in what may have been one of the most exciting finishes of the year. The Dodgers were down by 2 going into the 5th inning. They scored those two runs with several timely hits.
Here we go into the bottom of the 9th with the score tied once again. Both teams had been pitching well all game, but Mikey Burton stepped up to the plate and calmly lined a double into center field. He advanced to third base with the next at bat. With the game on the line and both teams fighting hard to the end, Mikey Burton stole home on a wild throw, scoring the winning run for the Twins victory.
With so many close games the finish to the season is going to be something to see.
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