13U Results - Tulsa Hurricanes Take Home Title

By April Smith Carpenter

July 25, 2008 (Cordova, TN)-The Memphis Traveler 13’s most likely left everything on the field Thursday evening. This ball club played three ballgames on Thursday while their championship game opponents, the Tulsa Hurricanes were only forced to play one.

The Memphis Traveler 13’s scored the first run in the first inning but the Hurricanes answered quickly in the 2nd inning with a 2 run homer by Derek Brumble which gave them the lead 3-1. The Traveler 13’s gave it their best throughout the game and rallied in the 7th inning. “We gave a good comeback attempt, we got one run scored but just couldn’t pull it out,” commented Traveler head coach Curtis Copeland. The final score Hurricanes 5- Traveler 13’s 2. Copeland added, “the whole team, all 14 players gave great effort in every aspect during the entire tournament.”

In the Traveler 13’s three games on Thursday, Chase Hamilton and Victor Cole pitched for the team and were very impressive. “Over the course of the day Chase pitched 7 innings with no earned runs, and Victor pitched one ballgame and a half of another giving up only one run.” Also throughout the tournament good defense was played by Garrett Copeland and Jordan Rodgers and multiple homeruns from Chase Hamilton and Ryan Garner. Head coach Curtis Copeland commented after the loss to Tulsa, “The Hurricane’s pitcher kept us off balance, they are a tremendous hitting team. I don’t think we ever got on top of them. Our kids simply ran out of gas from the three physically tough games we played on Thursday.” Copeland is pleased with the good season they had. “Out of our last 43 ballgames we won 40 and lost only 3.”

The Tulsa Hurricanes came through pool play with two wins and one loss. Sunday, July 20th the Hurricanes won against the St. Louis Metro A’s 7-5 and they finished the day with an impressive win against the Fighting Celtics 14-2. Four homeruns in this game alone, two by Trey Cobb. Monday’s game against the Texas Legends was this clubs only loss. Coach Curtis Zigler commented, “the Legends beat us 6-3. We weren’t playing good ball, we didn’t hit well.”

Once the Hurricanes entered double elimination things changed. Each of their three wins, verses Rawlings Red Sox 11-1, verses Blue Thunder 6-5, and verses Memphis Traveler 13’s 12-11, brought new challenges especially towards the end of each game. “We had excellent pitching, we had our opponents shut down until we got to the last inning and we would lose our focus and we would allow runners to get on base and score. We won these games by the skin of our teeth.” One of the Hurricanes pitchers, Clayton Smith was used earlier in the week but with no success. “He wasn’t moving and he wasn’t pitching well at all. He normally has a lot of tail on his fast ball.” Smith pitched successfully in the championship game for the Hurricanes. “Smith threw 73 pitches giving up only one hit. Everything was working well with him on the pitcher’s mound today.” Clayton Smith was awarded MVP of the championship game, with the final score Hurricanes 5 - Traveler 13’s 2.

Throughout the tournament coach Zigler credits his two catchers, Garrett Coffman and Cody Zigler, as “keeping everything in front. These are two of the best catchers around.” Zigler also credits his entire team for the victory. “The entire team stayed focused and we were able to capitalized on a couple of opportunities and key hits to win the game.”