A few Highlights of the weekend. Jenny Gumm (and the rest of the team) going three shut-out innings against the Lazers. Kari going to the Toledo with ten toenails and coming back with only nine. Ashley making that amazing catch in Right field. Angie batting 500 for the tournament and playing big time at 3rd base. Teryn finishing with a weekend ERA of 2.5. No one in the whole world beat Lynn Wenrick and Steve Marroni in euchre. Christen and Erin getting there first double play of the season. The Classics beating some good teams and playing great ball all weekend. Shannon ruining the Laser's no hitter with a big double to right center. The Honorable Mike Smith becoming the Undisputed Classics Motel Arranger for life with his choice of accommodations this year. Nikki owning center field with eight big catches. Coach Beckham NOT ending up in the pool.
Tournament MVPs: Angie Cleary batted 500, made 11 putouts and no errors at third.
Nikki Marroni 8 catches at center and two putouts when she caught a game. 7 stolen bases and batted 370 for the weekend.
Christen Miller for No errors at second, 15 putouts and an on base pecent of 660.
Highlights from the Columbus invitational. Two Error Free Games. We get to see Godzilla. A Come from behind victory over the Buckeye Express. Becky getting 10 Putouts in one game. Lindsay hitting 4 RBIs vs the Hilliard Wildcats. The Shannon to Kari Throwdown at 3rd. Two Run Rule victories. Cristen and Nikki in on another double play. Angie's triple. It only rained for 36 of the 72 hours of the tournament, Brats at the Miller's house and our best finish this year.
Tournament MVPs: Becky with 22 putouts and no errors.
Kari with 15 putouts at Short Stop, a win pitching, 4 RBIs, and 4 stolen bases.
Lindsay with 2 wins and a save pitching, batted 625 with 4 RBIs.
Tough weekend for the Classics. We lost all three.
Game #1 we lost to the Hilliard Wildcats (the team that beat us in the Semis last week) 9-2. We hung with them for a while and then errors got the better of us.
Game #2 we lost to the Ohio Emeralds, from Lakewood Ohio near Cleveland. They are a very good team. They beat us 6-1.
Game #3 We lost to the Sylvania Diamond Demons, 9-6. One bad inning.
Weekend Highlights. After Coach B gets a little too intense the first game, we had fun and played well in the next two. Cristen establishing herself as the team's leadoff hitter. Kim pitching her first full game with only 1 walk and 3 Ks. Kari hitting 2 triples. Kate making 15 POs and no errors all weekend. Shannon getting an ambulance ride. Erin taking Shannon's first successful throw-down at second.
Tournament MVPs: Kate Frankart, 15 POs playing third and short, 375 weekend batting average, 2 stolen bases and no errors.
Shannon Barnett, Throw down at second, couple of pop-ups behind the plate, and couple of big hits.
Cristen Miller, batted 500 for tournament, another double play, 5 stolen bases, no errors, 10 POs, and a 555 on base percent.
We started out the tournament great with a big come-from-behind win over the Grove City's "A" team. We had a 6 run inning to beat them 8-7.
We lost the next two. One was to the Westland Cougars form Westland, Ohio. We had a tough first inning and they scored 5 runs. We held them scoreless for the rest of the game but couldn't over take them before the time ran out. We left runners on base every inning and finished 5-4.
We also got beat by North Union and the blazing heat. The score 12-3 and the sun was 96 at game time.
We went there with just 10 young ladies and this is the first year for 3 of them. I was proud of the way we played, and how different kids step up and play well.
This weekends Tournament MVPs are:
Jessie Oliver. She made two big catches in the outfield, dropped a couple key bunts, batted 500 for the Tourny and was on base 6 out of 10 times.
Erin Smith. She had a couple big hits in the first game including a 2 RBI double that gave us the go ahead runs. She also caught two games for us and she has never caught a whole game in her life. Erin threw two people out at second with her rocket arm and had a bunch of stolen bases.
Lindsay Schell improved big time. She has always been steady this year pitching, but this weekend she kicked it up a notch. Lindsay pitched in all three games, throwing 16 strikeouts and only 3 walks. She also did well at the plate in game one.
The weekend started off rainy and delayed. The sun came out and so did the Classics. We won our pool with a bye and two wins. Kari and Lindsay each picked up pitching wins and the team played real strong. We came back Sunday for a single elimination. Jenna Davidson came back to join us and caught every game. Kim Mangon got her first win as a pitcher in game one as we beat Logan Elm 19-1.
Game two was against Lockwood. We had beat them the day before but they came back inspired. They gave us a run for our money in a 4-3 defensive masterpiece. The Classics didn't make a single error. Nikki made five big catches at centerfield and two of them were amazing. The whole team played well.
The Finals were against the Stingrays. We took an early lead with three hits in the first by Kari, Angie and Cristen. Lots of aggressive base running and smart defense won that game. We finished 6-2 and we have finally won our first Tournament as the Classics. We have a three thirds under our belt in the last two seasons and this win feels real good.
Tournament MVPs. Cristen Miller brings her streak of games to 29 without an error at 2nd. She again managed a 650+ On base percent and made 17 putouts at second. She also had 4 hits and 11 stolen bases.
Nikki Marroni made 6 putouts from center (in one game), 6 hits for a
Tourny batting average of 600, and on base percent of 705. She also had 8
stolen bases.
Kari Wenrick made 12 Put outs at short stop, pitched a win in game two on Saturday, and had an awesome day at the plate with 7 hits for a weekend average of 636. She also had 9 RBIs, 7 stolen bases, and an on base percent of 733
Honorable mentions: Lindsay for pitching 14 innings straight. Everyone on the team is an MVP for this one. We all contributed in different ways.
This is a tournament that we sponsor and don't compete in, but it is still a big event in the Classics Season. This is a our big fund-raiser. Our parents and players work hard to maintain the diamonds between games, stock and run the concession stand, run the scoreboards during the finals, and keep the place clean.
We raised a ton of money, got blistered and sun burned, got yelled at by a couple of losing team coaches, got complimented hundreds of times for what a great job we did, had a little red cup party each day when it was complete, sold 150 shirts, and worked hard and had fun.
Weekend Highlights; Cheers coming from every diamond all day long for 4 straight days, Johnsonville Brats, Nikki saying, "Its a whole lot easier playing in tournaments than it is running them". Perfect weather. The U10 Pickerington Tigers (future Classics) winning the tourney out of 14 teams. Red Cups. The cooler full of ice water being poured on me (coach B) after it was all over Sunday.
Tournament MVPS:
Shelly Beckham, Kim Frankart, and Mary Beckham for their never-ending support of our team and this program. These three spent every hour working their butts off seeing that things were perfect this weekend. They have the blisters to prove it. It would not have worked without them.
Kari Wenrick, Kate Frankart, and Nikki Marroni spent almost every free minute they had at the park this weekend. If they weren't working in the concession stand, they were dragging diamonds and relining them between games, cleaning dugouts, selling T-shirts and doing the grueling job of sweeping underneath the bleachers each evening. They also helped out Pickerington's Tiger U14 team in the Tournament and helped them take 1st place. They show as much effort for the Classics, off the field as they do on the field.
Joe Frankart, this team would not be possible without Joe's work. He dragged diamonds, cooked brats, umped games, broke up fights, teased the kids, kept the coffee cooler stocked and never took the smile off his face while he was doing it. He even gave up a dinner at the New Albany Country Club Saturday night to come back and get dirty all over again and take care of business at the park.
The Classics are truly blessed to have these people and all of the other parents and players give up there only weekend off this summer to support our team. It is too cool.
Huge weekend for the Classics. There were fourteen teams in the U14 age
group that wanted to end up on top. The Classics were wounded by not having
their Top two pitchers and one other starter around for the whole weekend.
We did some recruiting and wound up with a good team. We played much
better than our 1-3 record in pool play. We hung with the Rebels (the team
that won it) for a few innings then 5 errors got the better of us. We lost
the game but hit the ball well and played tough. The Hilliard White
Wildcats and errors beat us in game two to finish Friday nights play.
Saturday we played the home town favorites Whitehall Lightning. We started with a 5-0 lead and ended with another bad inning and loss. Our last game Saturday was against the Gahanna Lady Lions. We played a good game and finally captured our first win of the Tournament.
Sunday found us with the fifth seed in our pool and about the worst spot on the single elimination bracket. We came out strong and run-ruled Dominion from Columbus Ohio. We then had to play Grove City's U14 "A" team who happened to win their pool and go undefeated in the first two days of play. We showed up strong and had 13 hits in 5 innings. Shannon Barnett went 4/4 in that game. We run ruled them, which put us in the final four. We then lost to the team from Lokota and left us with a chance at a third place finish. We beat the Springfield Warriors 11-2 and walked out Sunday night with 3rd place trophies.
MVPs:
Becky Eilers had a huge weekend with 53 put outs or assists, in the 8 game
stretch. She played every inning at first and only made 1 error. She also
did well at the plate and Hit a 2 run homer against Grove City.
Cristen Miller had another big weekend. She also went 4/4 in one of the games and made a ton of putouts at second base. She has a streak of 43 games going without an error. She also made a diving catch for a fly ball in the final game.
Shannon Barnett did a great job behind the plate. She threw down 3 people and kept the pitchers on their game all weekend long. She stood in almost every inning in the blazing heat (Nikki Marroni filled in fine for her) and was outstanding at the plate, batting 409 for the weekend.
Great Job to all the Classics for a outstanding finish to our tournament year.
