The Winner 12U Baseball team finished in fourth place at the State VFW 12U Class A Tournament in Humboldt on July 14, 15, and 16.
In the first game of pool play, the boys defeated Baltic 9-5. Silas Chasing Hawk and Ethan Bartels combined for the pitching in this game. Aiden Barfuss hit two home runs in this game.
In the second game of pool play, the Winner team defeated Dell Rapids by a score of 19-7. Blake Volmer, Aiden Barfuss, and Karson Keiser combined to do the pitching in this game. The Winner boys had 15 hits including two more home runs by Aiden Barfuss.
In the final game of pool play, the Winner team defeated Milbank by a score of 13-2. Silas Chasing Hawk and Ethan Bartels combined to do the pitching in this game. Silas Chasing Hawk had 4 hits with 4 runs scored and Karson Keiser had 4 walks with 4 runs scored as well.
As the Winner team won their pool, they played 2 games in Sunday’s medal round.
The semifinal game was with West Central 12’s team. The Winner youth lost by a score of 6-1, while stranding 9 runners on base over 6 innings.
“We just couldn’t seem to come up with a hit at several key times in this game,” said coach Mike Calhoon. The West Central team had defeated every pool play opponent by the 10 run rule and only gave up 6 runs over all 5 of their games on the way to the State Championship.
In the third place game, the Winner boys were defeated by the West Central 11’s by a score of 6-2.
“We led this game going into the bottom of the fourth inning but West Central erupted for 5 runs in the home half of the fourth and we were unable to mount much of a scoring threat in our final two innings,” said Calhoon.
Throughout the tournament, Winner utilized five different pitchers. All players performed very well with every player getting at least one hit. The Winner defense also played error free ball for the 3 pool play games and had numerous outfield assists for put outs in this tournament.
This team was a combination of Winner Gold, Winner Purple, and Clearfield Majors. The coaches from each of those teams selected the players for this squad. This team was coached by Mike Calhoon, Kevin Keiser, and Keven Morehart. “The coaches appreciate the players and their parents for committing to this tournament at late notice as we weren’t accepted until about a week prior to this tournament,” explained Calhoon. He said the Winner Youth Baseball program was a big help in purchasing jerseys for the players to use during the tournament. Also, to T-Bones Treehouse sponsored Winner’s page in the program.
“ Hopefully, the players had fun and learned that they are able to compete at a high level within the state,” said Calhoon.
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