14U Battle In The South Tournaments At Rockwood, TN 06-27-2008

Friday's action in the "Battle In The South" tournament was absolutely intense as some teams would live to battle one more day, while others were going to go home broken hearted. Despite a brief storm in the area of the afternoon hours, the day's festivities got in without a hitch. In tournament action, the Alabama Storm washed out the Lamorinda Generals 10-1, East Cobb Yankees tied the South Oakland A's 6-6, the Baltimore Buzz stung 5280 Baseball by an 8-0 margin.

Also, the Mac-N-Seitz Indians ambushed the Ohio Force 13-0, the Carolina Angels ascended over the South Oakland A's for a 6-2 win, Team Mizuno beat the Virginia Wildcats 11-1, the Tennessee Raptors took a bite out of 5280 baseball 8-7, the Virginia Wildcats beat the East Cobb Yankees 8-5. Also, the Tennessee Raptors beat the Ohio Force 11-5, the McKinley Marshals corralled the Baltimore Buzz 11-0 with home runs coming from Willie Schwanke and Hayden Nixon for the Marshals.

The SEM Pirates swash-buckled the Rawlings Red Sox 12-3 thanks to a walk-off 3 run blast out of the park by Evan Karcher. And closing out the night's action was the Dallas Tigers-Ingram squad pouncing the Creek's Redwolves squad 14-5 thanks to a big three home run performance from Colby Carpenter and a homer from Austin Aune for the Tigers.

These teams have already logged plenty of miles this summer, as the Baltimore Buzz have played in tournaments in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, Tennessee, and Maryland. So there is a lot of miles racked up in travel ball, which shows the immense dedication of these kids to play the game they love.

Some teams, such as the McKinley Marshals, have been fighting the injury bug. Their starting pitcher, Hayden Nixon, just got a cast removed from his broken hand on Monday and not only pitched a shut-out for the Marshals, but blasted a home run as well. These teams also have many former college and major league baseball players as coaches.

One example is the Marshals are coached by Brett McCabe, who spent time in the Cubs minor league system in addition to coaching at Kansas State while Jim Schwanke has a College World Series title to his credit as he was the hitting coach for the 1999 LSU Tigers team that won the College World Series. The tournament wraps up Saturday evening, so come out and watch these young men play some excellent baseball. You will not be disappointed!

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