by Adam Burns
COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa — The Vegas Vipers rallied for three wins on Saturday to earn a trip to Sunday’s Omaha Slumpbuster 13u Division I Invite Championship series. And none of those wins were more difficult than the final one, as the Vipers scored four runs in the eighth inning to defeat Fastball Elite in a semifinal contest on Saturday afternoon on Field 9 at the Council Bluffs Recreation Complex. “They just grinded it out,” Vipers coach Brian Dallimore said. “It was tough, but their desire to win was stronger than their desire to get beat.” That desire may have something to do with the Vipers’ lone loss on their SlumpBuster resume. Fastball Elite topped the Vipers 5-3 in the opening game of pool play on Wednesday. “It’s definitely a good feeling because we lost our first game of the tournament so it was just crazy to come back and beat them,” Vipers’ Colton Boardman said. “That’s a good team,” Dallimore said. “We had a good game with them on the first day. It was 3-3 in the last inning and then they scored two and we couldn’t match that.” This time around, the Vipers started strong, scoring three runs apiece in the first two innings for a 6-0 lead. But the Vipers didn’t score again until the eighth. Fastball Elite’s offense woke up in the third with a run before a five-run fourth knotted the score at 6-all. Both squads failed to cross home plate in the following three innings, which forced extra innings. The Vipers broke through in the eighth, as Boardman put a ball in play that was ultimately misplayed at first base, scoring Konner Brown from second. Later in the inning, Brady Dallimore drew a bases-loaded walk before Alex Rhynes delivered a two-run double to right field to cap the scoring. The Vipers’ resilience stuck out to coach Dallimore. “To show up today and play three straight with like 10 minutes in between each game, and playing teams that had fresh guys, we just competed. We just flat competed,” he said. The Vipers now set their sights on Championship Sunday, where they’ll see the top-seeded St. Louis Force, who beat Fastball Elite 8-0 Saturday morning. Regardless of the outcome, the Vipers are just happy to be in position to do more. “We still play tomorrow, but I’ll tell you what, our championship was won today,” Dallimore said. “We’re all wiped out of pitching, but our main focus now is to get over to TD Ameritrade and try and get into a game. No, it’s special for these kids to compete like that.” Dallimore had an extra incentive to get his squad to Omaha this week. “I’m an old college baseball guy,” said Dallimore, who played for the Stanford Cardinal in the 1995 College World Series. “This place is like hallowed grounds for me. That’s why we came here. I wanted these guys to have an interest in college baseball and show them what it’s all about and kind of striving to be at that level. This has been such a cool trip for me and then be able to win these games and make it memorable.” by Adam Burns
COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa — Here comes the St. Louis Force. Again. The Force registered an 8-0 victory over Fastball Elite Saturday on Field 9 at the Council Bluffs Recreation Complex to advance to Championship Sunday of the Omaha SlumpBuster 13u Division I Invite Championships, setting up a chance for the Force to capture a second SlumpBuster title in as many seasons. The win kept the Force undefeated on the week at 6-0 and pushed it into Sunday’s best-of-three championship series against the Vegas Vipers, who registered three wins Saturday to emerge out of the losers’ bracket. The Force claimed the 12U tourney last summer. “It feels great. We're playing well,” Force coach Sal McGhee said. “There's some good competition here and that team we just played was really good. It's fun baseball.” Bryson Nepute dazzled for the Force, tossing a two-hit complete-game shutout. The left-hander struck out 10 batters. “I felt pretty good. My pitches were working and my catcher was framing it well,” said Nepute, who used a fastball-curve combination to fluster Fastball Elite. “He's a workhorse. He goes out there and gives us his all,” McGhee said. “He hits a lot of spots and he does a good job of mixing speeds.” The Force grabbed a quick 2-0 lead in the top of the first, courtesy of a Nazzan Zanetello two-run single. Fastball Elite starter Jared Rodriguez, who struck out seven across five innings, quieted the Force bats as he settled in for three straight scoreless innings of work. But the Force bats picked back up in the later innings, plating one run in the fifth and five more in the sixth to pull away. In the game-changing sixth, Jake McGhee laid down a successful safety squeeze bunt to score Bret Yager, who tripled to lead off the inning. Then, Mike Teason roped a two-run home run over the left field fence to give the Force a seven-run advantage. Teason collected two hits and drove in a pair to lead the Force, while Jordan Green had two hits for Fastball Elite. Nepute’s complete-game effort allows McGhee to have plenty of pitching options for Championship Sunday. “We just like to play baseball and this tournament is set up well for us,” McGhee said. “We've got nine pitchers so we're pretty deep in pitching.” Enough to win another SlumpBuster title? The Force sure thinks so. The key? “Rest tonight,” Nepute said. “Ice. Hit the hot tub, probably. And get ready for tomorrow.” by Kyle Koso
While physical ability and skills have a lot to do with success in baseball, sometimes it's the mysterious side of the sport that matters most. For the GBC Ventura County (CA) 13u squad, the big challenge Saturday had to do with exhibiting patience and faith as Division 1 championship bracket play continued at the Omaha SlumpBuster. Falling behind early, making mistakes and going almost four innings without scoring might have soured spirits, but GBC responded over time and topped the Ironmen (MO), 7-2, at La Vista Sports Park. GBC will face JBA Clutch Navy in the semifinals Sunday, with the title game set for 1:30 p.m. Two errors in the top of the first allowed the Ironmen to score two runs, and then their pitcher, Leonard Casey, started slicing through the GBC batting order with his fast and deceptive left-hand deliveries. The big break for GBC came with two outs in the fourth, when Leo Baez drilled a two-run double to tie the contest. In the bottom of the fifth, Landon Holmes singled on an 0-2 pitch with two outs; after Matt Ramirez walked, Bryce Rainer jumped on the first pitch he saw and smoked a home run over the centerfield fence to make it 5-2. Baez drove in another run in the sixth, by then just padding for a GBC squad that had looked in trouble earlier. "It got to be time where we thought about hitting line drives. Everyone was thinking home run," said Rainer, a lefty. "We changed the game plan and started to hit line drives, and that benefitted us, better than those first three innings. I was just trying to get on base (before the home run); we had guys on base." "This is a team that doesn't (fall behind) too much, so they have to work on those types of situations," said GBC head coach Kevin Johnson, whose team won its three pool play games by a margin if 59-1. "I was proud of how they bounced back, because we made a lot of mistakes in that inning. Anytime you can get out of 0-2 and get a knock, you're doing something right, and Baez had a great game, two clutch hits in two clutch situations." In all of this, GBC starter Nolan Johnson quietly pitched a terrific game, in the first action he had seen during the tournament. He ended up throwing a seven-inning complete game, allowing two hits and three walks alongside seven strikeouts. Casey struck out eight batters. Normally a reliever, Nolan Johnson said he tried to remain balanced and persistent while his teammates slowly turned around the momentum of the contest. "I'm trying to keep the same rhythm, dominate with strikes, and hopefully do that while the defense picks it up. I scored on (Baez's first double), and that felt amazing because I knew my team would back me up," said Nolan Johnson, who also had two hits. "I had to just stay with my game and not worry about what (Casey) was doing. "Rainer is our best player; that home run was nice. We needed some runs, and that's how we did it." The other 13u D1 semifinal features the Utah Owlz and another Ventura County team, the VC Baseball Academy. By Connor Wiggins
The Rippers out of Brandon, MS and the Stars from Chandler, AZ went face-to-face Friday at noon in the SlumpBuster for the right to stay in the winner's bracket. Six innings of hard-fought baseball went the Rippers' way, 7-6. Ryan Harwood got the nod in this game for the Stars on the mound. The starter had a difficult first inning as the Rippers scored on a wild pitch and a grounder that plated a runner from third base. Rippers ace, Will Bizot, started on the mound for his team. Bizot gave up a lead-off triple to Parker Rahn but recovered and retired the next three batters he faced. In the top of the second inning, Harwood got into a groove and went 1-2-3 with two strikeouts to put a halt to the bats of the Rippers. Bizot struck another batter out in the bottom of the inning but also made a mistake as he attempted to pick a runner off at second base with nobody at the bag to put the tag on. The runner ran all the way home but was thrown out at the plate by the center fielder to end the inning with no damage done. Connor Russell came onto the mound in the top of the third inning to pitch for the Stars and gave up three more runs on only one hit. The Stars’ defense had trouble in the inning as the two other runs they allowed were both scored on throwing errors by their shortstop. The deficit escalated to five runs. Nothing was going for the Stars at the plate in the bottom of the inning as Bizot had a 1-2-3 inning and a spectacular pick-off at first base. The top of the fourth inning was short lived for the Rippers at the dish as the Stars’ defense helped Russell to a 1-2-3 inning. Bizot responded with another 1-2-3 inning of his own and got another strikeout. “My fastball was good and my knuckleball was working,” Bizot said. The Stars needed runs in a hurry but they had no answer for the Rippers’ ace. Defense highlighted the Star's play yet again as they stepped up in the top of the fifth inning, helping Russell go 1-2-3 once more. At that moment, 12 straight batters had been retired in the game from both sides combined, but arms got tired and bats got hot in the bottom of the inning. Bizot saw six more batters in the bottom of the fifth inning and earned his fourth strikeout of the day before he was taken out of the game and replaced by Paxton Prisock. None of the three runs in the inning from the Stars were earned, as one run scored on an error from the catcher, another from an error from the shortstop and the last on a wild pitch from Bizot. Prisock walked the first batter he faced but no more damage was done in the inning when the Rippers’ catcher caught the runner on third with a big lead and threw him out to move to the sixth inning. Taylor Latham delivered at the plate in the top of the sixth inning for the Rippers, driving in a run on a single. Latham made his way to third base and later scored another run for his team as the Stars’ catcher threw down to second to throw out a stealing Bizot; he was safe and so was Latham. The Rippers lead was extended by two more runs going into the bottom of the sixth and last inning. Rahn and Brayden Waggoner each had base hits to start off the last inning for the Stars. Rahn scored a run from third base on an error from the second baseman to cut the deficit to three runs. The Stars scored two more runs on a sacrifice fly and a passed ball, but a ground ball to the shortstop ended the game at 7-6. Rippers head coach Jason Latham was pleased with his team and the way they battled. “These boys played with heart and they just never gave up,” Latham said, who also had high praise for his ace. “This kid is going to have a career that everyone will remember,” Latham said. “He’s got a heart of gold, he’s a bulldog on the mound and I had no doubt that Will would perform like that today.” NW Rankin Rippers will play against Kangaroo Court Roos at 10 a.m. on Saturday in the winner's bracket while Chandler Stars will play against BN Mavericks at 8 a.m. in the losers bracket. By Adam Burns
It was the bottom of the third inning of VCBA White’s third game of the 14u Omaha SlumpBuster tournament. Two outs had been recorded. And then it happened. Finally. At last, the California-based team had surrendered their first run. The Colorado Shamrocks added to their run total and made things interesting, but VCBA eventually pulled out a 6-4 win to stay undefeated Friday afternoon on Pat Shanahan Memorial Field at the La Vista Sports Complex. With the win, VCBA completed a 3-0 showing in Pool H of the Omaha SlumpBuster tournament. And it nearly entered bracket play without allowing a run. “We don’t expect to be perfect,” VCBA coach Kyle Jones said. “We played a pretty good team there. Our pitchers got into tough spots, but got out of those spots, too, by throwing strikes and letting the defense work behind them.” After allowing its first run of the tourney, VCBA, which led 3-1 at the time, tallied three runs in the fifth to take a 6-2 lead. The Shamrocks, who entered the contest with a 1-1 record, responded with a run in the fifth and another in the sixth before coming up short. “They have a really good team and their pitchers are good, but we just found a way to put the ball in play and keep things moving,” said VCBA’s Austin Kurr, who tripled home a run in the second inning. “Austin Kurr was big for us with the double in the gap and there was a lot of heads-up baserunning, by Jack Medhurst, our centerfielder,” Jones said, “and we had just solid defense and they made a couple of nice plays out there.” VCBA is set up nicely for bracket play as a likely top seed, after only allowing four runs in pool play. “It feels great,” Jones said. “I feel we put ourselves into a great spot. It’s a great spot to be in and we’ll see how it plays out tomorrow.” James Guyette recorded six strikeouts in two innings of work on the mound. Evan Needham had two strikeouts in relief. “We have a lot of depth on the mound and we’ve been able to manage our pitching pretty well,” Jones said. “We’re set up to go far in this thing.” Shamrocks pitcher Logan Smith tossed 3 ⅔ innings and struck out three. Wesley Nanas, Jack Medhurst and Jake Trickle all recorded two-hit days for VCBA. Nanas also picked up the save. Tested for the first time this week, VCBA won’t enter bracket play with zero runs against, but the club will be just that much more battle-tested. “We just need to keep putting the ball in play and keep pitching well and throwing strikes,” Kurr said. “I’m proud of these guys for the way that they made adjustments,” Jones said. “We’re ready to go.” |