Legend Recap - November 5th, 2013

With just four fields last weekend, the small tournament provided plenty of exciting games, and a particularly incredible finish in the 12-Under game.

9-Under:
They say offense wins games, but defense wins championships.  This was evident in the 9-Under Championship Game.  The 1st Seed Bat Rays were cruising through the weekend, scoring in the double digits each game, and holding their opponents to just a handful of runs.  Unfortunately for them, by the time the Championship game rolled around, they were short on pitching, and the So Cal Outlaws were just catching their stride.

Despite losing to the Bat Rays earlier in the tournament, the Outlaws came out swinging their bats, and put their ace on the hill.  After going up big in the first two innings, the Bat Rays battled back slightly, but the Outlaws put the game out of reach for a 13-5 1st Place Victory.

12-Under:
In what was possibly one of the more exciting games I've watched, the 12-Under HB Bombers and BC Prospects need 9 Innings to get their winner.  The Bombers, on their third game of the day, had been putting up big innings no problem.  As a team, they hit multiple home runs each game leading up to the Championship.  They ran into problems with the BC Prospects in the Championship though.

Headed into the 6th Inning with a one run lead, the Bombers just needed one more out to clinch first place.  The Prospects had the bases loaded when the batter drove a ball into center field.  The tying run scored, and the third base coach waved around what would be the winning run.  The HB Bombers Centerfielder put a throw on a line, and after a great snag by the catcher, he put the tag on the winning run to force extra innings.

The extra innings proved to be too much for the Bombers, who couldn't get any additional help offensively.  Despite getting runners to 2nd Base in the 7th and 8th Innings with no outs, the Prospects couldn't capitalize to put the game away.  It wasn't until the Bottom of the 9th Inning that the Prospects were able to seal the deal.  A lead off single put them in good shape.  The runner on first stole 2nd, and though he was safe, he jammed his hand into the base.  With the Prospects having no subs, he had to stay in the game at 2nd Base.  Luckily, the next Prospects batter put a ball in the game, driving home the winning run, and sealing off a great Championship Game.

Thank you to all the teams that played in the Legend.  Here is a list of the Champions and Runner Ups.

 
See you on the fields

-AC

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Columbus Day Classic Recap - October 20th

The Columbus Day Classic saw our return to Long Beach for the second time this year.  The Los Altos staff take care of their fields as good as any place you'll play.  It's a fun park to play at, and we look forward to our tournaments there every year.  Thank you to the Los Altos crew for making the weekend possible, and fantastic.

Oktoberfest Recap

8-Under:
The Gold and Silver Brackets in the 8-Under Division could not have split more perfectly.   All four teams in the Gold Bracket were 2-0 with just 5 runs allowed separating the 1st and 4th Seeds.   This resulted in a very evenly matched Gold Bracket that was up for grabs for any team.

One team however had redemption on their mind.  Three weeks earlier at the same park, Los Al Combat suffered a Pool Play loss to Raymar to knock them into the Silver Bracket on Sunday (which they easily won).  It took them three weeks, but they found themselves up against Raymar in their Semifinal Playoff game.  Not looking to repeat history, they jumped out to an early lead and never looked back, advancing to the Championship with a 9-1 victory.

After a game break, they were ready to seal the deal, and put up a whopping 17 runs in the Championship game, easily taking home 1st Place.

12-Under:
One of the most important things for any coach, player, parent, fan to remember is that in a baseball game, anything can happen.  Even the best teams lose games, or in the Majors over 70 games.  LA Xtreme experienced that this weekend.  After giving up no runs in their first Pool Play game, they gave up an uncharacteristic 9 runs in a 9-3 loss.  This put them into the Gold Bracket, but as the 3rd Seed.  Not letting that loss get in their head, they buckled down and play the baseball they knew they could play.  Giving up 1 run in the Semifinals, and just 2 in the finals, they cruised to an easy 1st Place finish, and learned an important lesson along the way.

13-Under:
It's not often a team goes 2-0, gives up 2 runs in Pool Play, and isn't the 1st Seed, but just that happened to IE Elite Orange.  The 1st Seed Outlaws gave up 0 runs on Saturday, and took the 1st Seed into Sunday's playoffs.  They couldn't keep the streak going though, and were upset by the 4th Seed La Verne Patriots.

Laverne and IE Elite had faced each other on Saturday with Elite coming out on top.  The Patriots couldn't change history though, and IE Elite gave up 0 runs to take home 1st Place.

Thank you to all the teams that played in the Oktoberfest.  Here is a list of the Champions and Runner-Ups.

See you on the fields

-AC

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Thunder Weekend Recap - October 1st, 2013

11-Under:
Heading into the Championship game on Sunday, No Fear looked unstoppable.  Outscoring opponents 28-0 in their first two playoff games, there didn't seem to be anything that could slow them down.  They certainly weren't counting on a pesky 4th Seed to ruin their plans.

The La Costa Titans entered Sunday with a 1-1 record.  Bright and early, they found themselves facing the team that handed them their one loss on Saturday.  Not looking for a repeat outcome, they snuck by them with a 7-6 upset.  Now facing the 1st Seed with momentum pushing them, they upset the 1st Seed with a 8-3 Semifinal victory, sending them to the championship game.

Now with both teams on their third games of the day, it came down to a game of defense.  With pitching thin and teams getting tired, the Championship became less about scoring runs, and more about holding their opponents to as few as possible.  The Titans did just that.  Able to stifle No Fear's strong offense, they outscored the 2nd Seed 8-4 for the Championship upset.

12-Under:
Teams playing up towards the end of a season is a common thing.  Teams are getting ready to advance up in age, so playing at great distances against older/stronger teams is a great way to get players ready for that jump.  Stronger teams will do it early in the season as well, which is why the 12-Under division had two 11-Under teams competing against the older teams.

The 11-Under LA Clash came out swinging, putting up 23 runs on Saturday, and advancing to the Gold Bracket as the 2nd Seed. Once they got to the playoffs, they didn't look back.  Winning their Semifinal game 7-3, they advanced to the finals to face the 1st Seed.  They kept swinging the bats, putting up 10 more runs, and taking home 1st Place.

14-Under:
Some days, things just don't go your way.  The Corona Cougars had one of those days on Saturday.  Bad baseball wasn't to blame for their 0-2 Pool Play performance, it was just bad luck.  They lost both games by a total of three runs.  They just couldn't wake their bats up for Saturday's Pool Play games.  Lucky for them though, Sunday was the only day they needed to swing the bats, and they came ready.

Putting up 14 runs in their quaterfinal game, they advanced to face the 1st Seed from their pool, who had beaten them 2-0 on Saturday.  The Cougars did not repeat that performance, putting up 7 runs and advancing to the Championship game.  Not ready to slow down, the Cougars put up another 11 runs, beating the 1st Seed from Pool B, and taking home the Championship.

Thank you to all the teams that played in the Thunder.  Here is a list of the Champions and Runner-Ups.

See you on the fields

-AC

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