by Adam Burns
COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa – Millard United Elite 14U defended its home turf on Saturday morning. The Omaha, Nebraska-based team, seeded No. 16, surprised the Slumpbuster D1 championship bracket field with a 4-1 upset of No. 1 Rawlings Prospects MD at the Council Bluffs Sports Complex. Then, hours later, Millard United handled No. 9 Grey Sox 9-1 (South Carolina) to advance to the quarterfinals round. The locals will face the Minnesota Iceman at 11:15 a.m. Sunday at Zorinsky Complex Field 1. Millard United coach Scott Semanisim and starting pitcher Jack Cosgrove were both not shocked that they were headed to Championship on Sunday. “We had a lot of confidence. We just did our jobs,” said Cosgrove, who pitched two scoreless innings. “We plan to come back tomorrow and continue to dominate. If we do that, we have a good shot at winning this tournament.” “They played well,” Semanisim said. “It was a rough start in pool play and we somehow snuck into a 16 seed. They were ready today and came out and played hard and played great baseball. They played with a next man up mentality and got the win.” Semanisim added that he liked what he saw out of his starter. “He did outstanding,” he said of Cosgrove. “He did exactly what he needed to do; he pounded the strike zone and got us through. We needed the innings and he gave it to us.” After a 2-1 pool play effort, Millard United put the pieces together to make some noise and firmly implant themselves in the thick of things in bracket play. What did Semanisim tell his team before they faced the No. 1 overall seed? “That we were going to beat them,” Semanisim said, acknowledging that pool play was not the team’s best effort. “They showed that they were better than (Rawlings).” And what did the coach see in his squad on Saturday? “Fire. They just came out and believed,” Semanisim said. “They were not happy with how they played in pool play. We just happened to scratch a couple runs across.” Now, the goal is to bring that fire or, as Cosgrove stated, “dominate” on Championship Sunday. “We love seeing the competition come from all over the country,” Semanisim said. “I tell everybody and Triple Crown. We’re the luckiest people in the world because we get to see all this fantastic competition and not leave home.” by Adam Burns
COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa – The boys from the Beaver State are called Mound Time for a reason. Thanks to a bevy of strong arms and reliable defense, the 13-year-old squad from Hillsboro, Oregon, has enjoyed an undefeated start to the Triple Crown Sports Slumpbuster tournament. After blanking its pool play opponents, second-seeded Mound Time defeated Colorado-based Salty Dawgs 6-4 to advance to Championship Sunday of Division I Platinum bracket play. “We pride ourselves in developing a staff from top to bottom,” Mound Time coach Tyler Niles said of his pitchers. Jack Burnham, Mound Time’s right-handed starting pitcher, allowed just two runs across five innings of work, converting 15 first pitch strikes and one strikeout. The two runs allowed came in the first inning. “Today, in a big game like this against a good team, it’s easy to fold after that team puts up two in the first inning,” Niles said. “But we came right back and got a leadoff double. After that everyone just loosened up and evened it up.” Indeed they did, which Burnham certainly appreciated. Kyle Goodwin was quick to compliment his pitcher, and was pleased with his squad's efforts. “I thought we played great,” Goodwin said. “We’re hitting the ball well and throwing strikes on the mound. We played an all around good game.” The Salty Dawgs didn’t go down without a fight, as Dylan Rubenstein launched a two-run home run to left center field to make it a 5-4 game in the top of the sixth. However, once again, Mound Time had a response, tallying a run in the bottom of the sixth prior to closing out the contest in the seventh. “I was proud of how they responded,” Niles said. “Resilience is the name of the game. They’re showing that resilience a bit and it’s good to see. When this team, with the talent they have, has that mental aspect figured out, they’re a really good team.” Mound Time turns its focus to a 9 a.m. Sunday quarterfinals date with Omaha Tigers Black at Council Bluffs Sports Complex Field 4. Of course, Mound Time feels quite confident in its ability to navigate a potential three-game day. “I feel good,” Goodwin said. “We have a lot of pitching left so I think we can go far in this tournament.” As they should. They’ve only handled their opponents 41-4 thus far. COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa – The ball went from the shortstop to the second baseman to the first baseman. From the outside, it looked like a traditional 6-4-3 double play that has been seen and practiced countless times. But it was anything but. As the ball snapped off the leather of the first baseman’s glove, an outpouring of emotions came from the UT Grays sideline, as they had knocked off Beaver Valley Red, 6-3, to claim the 13u D1 Platinum Title.
“For us, some of our guys, this is their last tournament with us,” UT Grays Head Coach Mike Goff said fighting back tears. “So, it was going to be super emotional for us no matter what happened in this tournament, but for us to finish like this is just unbelievable. This group is amazing.” Going up against a Beaver Valley Red team that had put up 93 runs in the six games leading up to the championship game and had fans of other teams sticking around just to get a glimpse of their prodigious hitting, it looked like the UT Grays found themselves in a David vs Goliath situation. Beaver Valley Red looked locked in early on, as Will Swisher jumped on the first pitch of the game and hit it out to deep center field, bouncing off the top of the wall and staying just inside the park for a leadoff triple. Beaver Valley batted him in on the next batter and took a quick 1-0 lead, but UT Grays pitcher Mason Orchard settled down from there. “Our team had been playing really solid defense all tournament,” Goff said. “We told our pitchers, ‘get the ball in play, we’ll make a play for you.’ I also told them that this team has been rolling over everyone and let’s see how they handle a team pushing back. We got two runs in the bottom of the first and that was huge for us to show that we weren’t just going to lay down.” Orchard kept Beaver Valley out of rhythm, holding Beaver Valley to just that lone run through his three innings of work on the mound before turning the ball over to Titan Mozingo, who had already shined at the plate and behind the dish. “We figured they had seen a lot of velocity before,” Goff said. “So we had our lefty on the mound who had a lot of good off-speed pitches and we went with him for as long as we could, and then we came in with the harder thrower in Titan (Mozingo). He hadn’t pitched the whole tournament, so he was ready to go, and he did awesome.” Trailing 1-0, Mozingo got his team all squared in the bottom of the first inning with an RBI double that was laced into right-center field. Then in the third inning, Mozingo showcased his arm behind the plate, throwing out Beaver Valley’s leadoff hitter who was trying to steal second. In the bottom of the third, Mozingo once again came through with an RBI, and all of a sudden, UT Grays found themselves up 6-1 after putting up four runs in the bottom of the inning. Now it was Mozingo’s turn on the mound. Mozingo stranded runners on 1st and 2nd in the top of the 4th inning, before surrendering two runs in the top of the 5th inning, but that was as much damage as Beaver Valley could muster. In the top of the 6th and for the final out in the 7th inning, Mozingo induced nearly identical ground ball double plays to get out of any danger. “It’s a huge statement for us to finish like this,” Goff said. “To come out to the biggest tournament that we’ve ever played in and win it, it just says a lot. Our program back home is going to be super excited when we come home with this trophy and stick it on the shelves.” By Kyle Koso
COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa – While temperatures spiked up and didn’t much relent at the 2022 SlumpBuster, you could have taken the pulse of the Canes Arizona 13u Gold squad and not found cooler customers out of the hundreds of other teams at the event. First, the Canes (from Scottsdale) fought through various moments of stress and strain in the DI Gold semifinals, holding off Hawks 13’s by a 5-4 margin in extra innings. And as an encore, the Canes prevailed in a good, old-fashioned defensive nail-biter, moving past the Placentia (CA) Mustangs in the title game, 3-2. Braden Harmon threw five standout innings for the Canes in the championship matchup, allowing one first-inning run and notching four strikeouts, with one huge K ending the third inning with the bases loaded. Reliever Hawk Licari gave up a run in the sixth to make it 3-2 and saw the Mustangs load the bases in the seventh on a hit and two walks. But he got the Mustangs to hit an easy-to-handle grounder to shortstop; with the out made a second base, the Canes could celebrate even if the heat might have sapped a few inches off their vertical jumps. “It’s a great one to win, and anytime you win your last game everything feels good, whatever bracket it is,” said Canes coach Greg Halvorson. “The kids played great. You control what you can – these kids really play hard and grind, and they’ve been together a long time. They know how to win at the end of the game, and that’s what they did here in these last two. “The kids always make it interesting, but (late-inning drama) is part of the game. They played hard, we played hard, and we were able to get it done.” Christian Rojas walked to lead off the game for the Mustangs; he scored on a groundout by Jaxson Lang. The Canes responded with singles by Harmon and Sean Campbell and a two-run double from Jacoby Noble. Campbell came through with a triple to lead off the third, and he came home on a groundout by Chris Sinacori. Campbell added a double with one out in the fifth, but he was stranded when a line drive from Noble was tracked down by the Mustangs defense. “I was very confident up at the plate and usually a pretty good hitter,” Campbell said. “I started the day off not that good, but it came around and we were able to win the championship. We were pretty positive – Hawk is a very good pitcher and did a great job in the end.” Harmon allowed just four hits and moved through his assignment with confidence. The Canes defense only had a couple of errors, and the one that came in the fifth was solved when Harmon got the final out of the frame on a pop fly to first base. “As soon as I got in my comfort zone, I started to feel a bit better about everything,” Harmon said. “I was able to settle down. This was exciting at the end and great to come out on top. We were hoping for some more runs, but we know we have good pitching, guys who will pump strikes and finish it strong.” COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa – The old saying goes that basketball is a game of runs. But on Saturday afternoon, the 14u D1 Championship Bracket game between the Omaha Pacesetters and MASH 14u Black took center stage as a roller coaster wave of emotions as both teams battled the heat and huge runs made by the other team.
With a spot in the semifinals on the line, MASH 14u couldn’t have asked for a better start, taking a 3-0 lead into the bottom of the 2nd. But Omaha Pacesetters would respond to the early deficit, and then some. In the bottom of the 2nd inning, Omaha answered with three runs of its own to tie it, and then after holding MASH scoreless in the top of the third, poured on six runs in the bottom of the 3rd to take a commanding 9-3 lead. The inning was capped off by a two-RBI triple from Cal Anthony. If MASH seemed down after the avalanche that hit them in the 3rd inning, they didn’t stay down for long. In the top of the 4th inning, MASH got right to work and quickly loaded the bases. Displaying both aggressive hitting and timely patience, MASH answered back with five runs in the top of the 4th to make it a game once again at 9-8. The Pacesetters added another run in the bottom of the 4th to take a two run lead into the 5th inning, but once again, MASH showed its resiliency. Two hitters in a row MASH was down to its last strike of the inning, and both times the hitters were able to bounce back from a 1-2 count to draw walks and keep the inning alive. Ultimately MASH ended up scoring the two runs it needed to tie the game at 10-10. “It was a back-and-forth battle all day,” Pacesetters Head Coach Zane Hinkel said. “We got a big lead, gave it up. Got another lead, gave it up. We just told them throughout the whole game to keep playing and grinding it out. If you keep playing hard, good things will happen.” Heading into the latter part of the game, both teams found some much-needed performances from their relief pitchers. For the Pacesetters, it was Braden Caito who answered the call, producing scoreless innings in the 6th, 7th and 8th innings. “He threw the ball well today” Hinkel said of Caito. “He had been kind of struggling on the mound, but he was in the zone, throwing a lot of strikes. He throws hard, and it was great for him to have a good, productive outing against a very talented offensive group. Offensively, however, the Pacesetters struggled to take advantage. With the game in extra innings in the 7th inning, the Pacesetters managed to load the bases with nobody out, needing just one run to win the game. A quick strikeout followed by a laced line drive which was caught and turned into a double play, ended the inning in the blink of an eye, just once again adding to the roller coaster of emotions that this game provided. But Omaha would respond in the bottom of the eighth inning with another chance, once again loading the bases, and this time coming through with a line drive into right field to bring in the winning run. Now the Pacesetters will take on another team from Omaha, the Omaha Tigers Black, at 11:15 am on Sunday for a chance to play in the 14u D1 Championship game. “It’s a big deal. We look forward to this tournament every year,” Hinkel said |