BASEBALL FIRST BLOG: Veteran's Day NIT Recap

It's easy to get caught up in a game of baseball. A close play at second, a borderline strike, in the heat of the moment, these can seem like all that matters. It's easy to forget that we have brave men and women overseas, protecting our country and allowing us to play baseball every weekend. Many of our umpires are former servicemen, along with parents and grandparents of countless players in our program. We thank you for letting us live free and play baseball every weekend.

10-Under:
1st Seed South Bay Swarm and 2nd Seed Toluca Thunder had no problem advancing to the Championship Game on Sunday. It was no surprise that the game wound up turning into one of the most exciting of the weekend.

Down 5-2 going into the 5th Inning, the Swarm had two men on and two outs. The Thunder just needed to get one more out and they would be in the home stretch. The Swarm wasn't going to let that happen though. A hard line drive up the middle found its way past the Thunder Center Fielder, resulting in a game tying home run.

The Swarm shut down the Thunder offense, and in the 6th Inning, scored the go ahead run, giving them a dramatic come from behind 1st Place finish.

12-Under:
The Tustin Scorpions got the sweetest revenge on Sunday. After going 0-2 on Saturday in two 7-3 losses, they entered Sunday needing to win 3 straight games to take home 1st Place.

After a tense 3-1 victory over the 2nd Seed from the other Pool, they found themselves pitted against the 1st Seed of their pool. Not looking to repeat Saturday's result, the Scorpions came out swinging, scoring 11 runs in the Semifinal upset.

Not ready to throw in the towel just yet, they kept their bats hot against the 2nd Seed from their pool, scoring another 9 runs while holding the Kings to just 1 run in the three game run to the Championship.

The Orange County Kings hitter slapping in a run

13-Under:
The 13-Under Playoffs was full of close, and stressful games. In the first Semifinal game, the NLB Waves found themselves up against the So Cal Rippers. On Saturday, the Rippers not only shutout the Waves 12-0, but the Ripper's pitcher Tyler Chaffee threw 4 no hit innings to help the Rippers clinch the 1st Seed in their Pool.

In the Semifinal game, the Rippers repeated their stellar pitching performance, giving up just 3 runs. However, they were unable to match their Saturday performance at the plate. The Waves held them to just 2 runs this time around, giving them the 3-2 upset.

In the other Semifinal game, the HB Sluggers found themselves matched up against the OC Wolves. In the second close Semifinal of the day, the Sluggers edged out the Wolves with a 5-4 victory to advance to the Championship.

With the Championship game moving into the early night of winter, the Waves and Sluggers faced off in what turned out to be yet another stressful game. The Sluggers jumped out to and early lead, and though they never ran away with the game, they were able to hold off the Waves for a 6-5 1st Place victory.