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Gold Rush Wins Karns City 7-U Tournament (06/04/14)

(By Coach Lee Weber)

It was a great start for the Clarion Little League’s Gold Rush  7-Under Tournament Team (winning the Karns City Tournament on Saturday, May 31 and Sunday, June 1). This is our first tournament playing together but we showed little fear by winning 4 straight games by out-hitting, out-fielding, and out-hustling our opponents.

(Photo by Jami Smail) Row 1 (L-R) Jesse Siwiecki, Jayden Siwiecki, Noah Harrison, Logan Lutz, Hayden Weber Row 2 (L-R) Jack Craig, Mason Gourley, Matt Alston, Jase Ferguson, Kam Kerle, Derek Smail Row 3 (L-R) Coaches, Matt Siwiecki, Todd Lutz, Lee Weber, Mike Ferguson, David A. Smail (Manager), Eric Harrison, Patrick Craig

(Photo by Jami Smail) Gold Rush, KC Tournment Champions – Row 1 (L-R) Jesse Siwiecki, Jayden Siwiecki, Noah Harrison, Logan Lutz, Hayden Weber Row 2 (L-R) Jack Craig, Mason Gourley, Matt Alston, Jase Ferguson, Kam Kerle, Derek Smail Row 3 (L-R) Coaches, Matt Siwiecki, Todd Lutz, Lee Weber, Mike Ferguson, David A. Smail (Manager), Eric Harrison, Patrick Craig

In our first game against East Butler, we jumped out to a 16-0 lead after the top of the 4th inning. We had some defensive break downs in the 4th when we gave up 6 runs but we bounced back by scoring 6 more runs in the last 2 innings to make the final score at 22-9.

In our second game against Karns City, it was a slugfest. We jumped out to an 8-0 lead but KC answered back by scoring 6 runs in bottom of second. We scored 9 runs in the 4th and 5th but we couldn’t shake them because KC also scored 9 runs. We scored a couple of runs in the 6th to make the final score 19-15.

In our second day and 3rd game, we played Central Butler. Our team scored the maximum 6 runs in all 5-innings and ran away with the win 30-6 in 5 innings.

East Butler played Karns City in consolation finals and beat them in a close ball game to earn a trip in the finals to face us. East Butler jumped out first by scoring 1 run in the top of the first. This is the first time we were behind in the whole tournament.

The lead was short lived because once again we scored the maximum 6 runs in the first 3 innings and 5 runs in the 4th inning for a mercy rule win 23-5.

In summary, our defense was very solid, our base running improved as the tournament went on, and our hitting was tremendous!

To show our dominance at the plate, here are the batting stats: Logan Lutz – 15 for 18; Noah Harrison – 13 for 17; Jase Ferguson – 15 for 17; Derek Smail – 16 for 17; Mason Gourley – 15 for 16; Matt Alston – 14 for 16; Jesse Siwiecki – 12 for 16; Hayden Weber – 10 for 15; Jack Craig – 10 for 15; Jayden Siwiecki – 13 for 15; Kam Kerle – 11 for 15.
Our next tournament will be on June 14-15 at Saxonburg.

(Thanks to Coach Weber for this article and to Jami Smail and Diane Lutz for the photos. Good job team!!!!)