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Tournaments  | Story  | 5/28/2018

LakePoint crowns four

Vincent Cervino     
Photo: (Perfect Game)

Pitching, smallball lead Tri-State to victory

EMERSON, Ga. – In another game that featured a lot of pitching, Tri-State Arsenal Scout Team 2022 outlasted Swingman Baseball SC 14u by a final score of 2-0. Reese Ratchford was masterful for Tri-State as he finished the game with seven shutout innings while striking out twelve batters on the afternoon.

Ratchford was simply outstanding for Tri-State, as he worked his fastball up to 84 mph at its best while living in the 78-82 mph range for the majority of the outing. Ratchford pounded the zone and had legitimate swing-and-miss stuff with command of both pitches featuring a sharp curveball up to 69 mph. The righthander showed a lot of grit and toughness as he battled through some bad counts and always came out of every inning unscathed despite totaling only five baserunners.

Despite being dealt the loss, J.P. Cunningham was pretty impressive for Swingman, tossing four innings and only allowing two runs. Both of those runs were hard faught as Cunningham didn’t allow much well-struck contact on the afternoon.

Smallball was the game for the Tri-State offense which could be highlighted to a tee with how they pushed a run across in the third inning. The leadoff man hit a first pitch single, which was followed up by a passed ball, a sacrifice bunt, and another passed bunt. Following two walks, a third passed ball brought the run across for the lead. Tri-State pushed another run across in the sixth inning following yet another passed ball.

Ratchford was supremely impressive and Tri-State scratched and clawed for runs despite only totaling five hits on the day. The offense was minimal but both teams showed good fundamental defense and Ratchford was the star of the show.

Will Musgrove of Tri-State was named the MVP of the tournament as the primary pitcher hit .529 on the tournament with two extra-base hits, six RBI, and two stolen bases. Ratchford was named the MV-Pitcher following his performance of twelve strikeouts in a complete game shutout effort.


2018 WWBA 14u Memorial Day at LakePoint champions: Tri-State Arsenal Scout Team 2022



2018 WWBA 14u Memorial Day at LakePoint runner-up: Swingman Baseball SC 14u



2018 WWBA 14u Memorial Day at LakePoint MVP: Will Musgrove



2018 WWBA 14u Memorial Day at LakePoint MV-Pitcher: Reese Ratchford





Back-and-forth affair ends in walk-off walk

EMERSON, Ga. – In a back-and-forth affair, the Duluth Noles stormed back from four runs down in the seventh inning to take the championship of the 16u WWBA Memorial Day at LP via walk-off walk to win 10-9 over the Ninth Inning Royals Honeycutt.

The game started with immediate fireworks as the Royals struck for five runs over the first two innings of the affair. Highlighted by a run-scoring triple from Pirmin Brechbuhl and capped off by a screaming, line drive two-run shot by first baseman Luke Clark, the Royals jumped all over starting pitcher Jordan Walker to quickly chase him from the game and grab the early 5-0 lead.

The Noles struck right back, however as they put up five runs over the next three innings to knot the game at five runs apiece. Christian Webb and Tyler Clayton each added RBIs during the rally and the Noles had the momentum and were right back into the game.

William Luff was a pitcher of note who did a good job at keeping the Noles in the game while they slowly fought back to tie the game. Luff pounded the strike zone and did not allow much hard hit contact as he tossed 3.2 scoreless innings all while striking out three batters.

The seventh inning is where the game got, to put it bluntly, bananas. Both teams struck for four runs in the frame, started off by the Royals in the top half. After a sacrifice fly and a run scoring walk, CJ Kachmar came through with a huge two-run double that traveled over the head of the left fielder. The game looked all but wrapped up, however the Noles never showed any quit and fought all the way back.

The inning got off to an extremely loud start as Jordan Walker quickly got two runs back thanks to a no-doubt, absolute bomb of a home run deep to left field. Also worth noting was Walker’s righteous bat flip as the ball screamed off the bat and traveled an estimated 397 feet with an exit velocity of 97 mph. The Noles weren’t finished as Adam Smith added a run-scoring double and the Noles tied the game with two outs following a costly error by the Royals defense.

The top of the eighth inning was over quickly as Bishop Woods threw five pitches and got three very quick outs. The momentum was clearly with the Noles as they quickly loaded the bases and eventually pushed across the game-winning run after walking with the bases juiced. Both teams showed a ton of fight and the Noles ultimately came out on top.

Bryant Rhooms of the Duluth Noles was named the MVP of the event with an absurd batting average of .571. Rhooms notched two triples and also stole seven bases while scoring the game-winning run. William Stephens of the Royals was named the MV-Pitcher following a complete game shutout with six strikeouts and only allowing four hits.


2018 WWBA 16u Memorial Day at LakePoint champions: Duluth Noles



2018 WWBA 16u Memorial Day at LakePoint runner-up: Ninth Inning Royals Honeycutt



2018 WWBA 16u Memorial Day at LakePoint MVP: Bryant Rhooms



2018 WWBA 16u Memorial Day at LakePoint MV-Pitcher: William Stephens





Dirtbags, BigStix stifled by weather, exams

EMERSON, Ga. – In a game that featured an intense, multi-faceted pitcher’s duel and only six combined hits, the Dirtbags SkrapPak and BigStix Gamers were able to battle everything except the weather and looming threat of final exams, as both teams were named co-champs following a 0-0 draw.Both starting pitchers were fairly impressive, and defense was the name of the game as neither team committed an error and played largely mistake-free baseball.

Nolan McLean started for the Dirtbags and you could tell he was in the zone from the words “play ball” as McLean sat 90-93 mph in the first inning. He ran into some trouble early but settled in and tossed a mostly uneventful three scoreless innings with three strikeouts.

On the other side of the field, Marshall Burford was simply masterful, throwing six innings of shutout ball while striking out five batters. Burford was in complete command of the game, only allowing hard contact once or twice, and almost never missing his spots. Burford owned both halves of the plate, commanding his low-80s fastball effectively while keeping his breaking ball low and working backwards at times to keep the Dirtbags hitters on their toes.

Defense was stout and offered plentiful rewards, highlighted by the plays and actions of BigStix’ Rob Allgood. The shortstop had very good instincts and made a number of plays cleanly, even showing the occasional highlight reel play by demonstrating the arm strength with a couple of difficult plays in the 6-5 hole to his left.

Mason Carnes, Skylar Brooks, and Thomas Keehn were the other pitchers who saw time on the mound during the seven-inning affair, all of which were fairly impressive. The two times that came closest to runs were in the sixth inning where BigStix was able to turn a double play with a runner on second and no outs and in the bottom of the seventh where Keehn geared up to blow a 90 mph fastball by the opposing hitter with a runner on third and two outs to save the tie.

Both teams showed that they were absolutely deserving to be in the championship game and were two of the most talented teams in the event. Watching a team play defense and pitch as excellently as both squads did was an absolute joy to watch.

Zach Love of the BigStix Gamers was named the MVP of the event as he hit a collective .500 for the event. Love totaled two doubles and three RBI on the weekend and was a tough out every at-bat. AJ Wilson of the Dirtbags was named the MV-Pitcher of the event. The East Carolina commit worked his fastball up to 91 mph and struck out ten batters over 4.2 scoreless innings featuring both a start and relief appearance.


2018 WWBA 18u Memorial Day at LakePoint champions: BigStix Gamers Prime 17u & Dirtbags SkrapPak



2018 WWBA 18u Memorial Day at LakePoint MVP: Jake Love



2018 WWBA 18u Memorial Day at LakePoint MV-Pitcher: AJ Wilson
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