Kittanning 9/10 All-Stars Fall in Championship Against Indiana

by Jake DeLuca

After winning their game on Saturday against New Bethlehem, the Kittanning 9/10 year old All-Star team looked to capture the championship on Tuesday against Indiana at Optimist Park in Indiana.

Optimist Park was host to a potential double header, as Kittanning had to win two games against Indiana to capture the championship. This is because the all-star tournament is a double elimination tournament. Kittanning had one loss going into the game and Indiana had yet to lose a game.

Unfortunately for the Kittanning All-Stars they would only get to play one game, but Kittanning manager Tom Scheeren said that making it to the championship is still something to be proud of.

“It’s awesome, getting to the championship. They played their hearts out this year, but we were just one game short. We ran up against a better team tonight and that happens, but I’m very proud of the boys,” Scheeren said.

The Kittanning boys went up against a very good pitcher in Andrew Mcgee on the other side. McGee threw a lot of strikes, and it took a while for Kittanning to get on the board. Scheeren went on to explain his approach to going up against such a strong pitcher.

“When he’s (McGee) dealing like that you just got to get the players in there, getting the bat through the strike zone. That was probably the fastest throwing pitcher we’ve faced all season, and there’s no real way to prepare for that,” Tom Scheeren said of Indiana’s starter.

The game was not out of reach for Kittanning, for most of the game they were down just four runs. That was before Indiana’s big fifth inning in which they went on to score five runs and make the score 10-1 in their favor.

Kittanning never gave up though, and they were able to go on a bit of a roll in the sixth and final inning. In the dugout there was no talk of losing, it was all about getting on base and putting runs on the board.

Kittanning was able to get on base right away, as Logan Gawlinski started the inning with a single. Anthony Stuble added another single before Zackary Wiles rang in a two RBI single before being thrown out attempting to stretch his single into a double. Matt Badac added another run with an RBI double, but it wasn’t enough to overcome Indiana’s nine point lead, the final score was 10-4, Indiana.

Tom Scheeren was proud of how his team never gave up and battled till the end.

“We don’t give up, that’s the whole thing that you have to teach these kids, never give up. Some of them were hanging their heads, but that’s baseball. You can’t beat every team by 10,” Scheeren said.

Up next for the Kittanning All-Stars is the Tournament of Champions, another double elimination tournament this time with a few more teams. Kittanning manager Tom Scheeren went on to explain the tournament.

“The Tournament of Champions is comprised of all the teams in District 7. Basically it’s the same teams that are in the All-Star game, plus three more. It’s double elimination like the all-star tournament we just finished tonight (July 5th). We start in the bracket that doesn’t have Indiana in it, so we’ll be looking for revenge in the Tournament of Champions Finals,” Scheeren said.

It will be interesting to see if Indiana and Kittanning meet again in the Tournament of Champions finals. Kittanning will go up against New Bethlehem on Thursday, July 7th.

No Comments

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Leave a comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.