The 2012 Rookie-Ball Select team represented their town extremely well this past weekend in the annual Select tournament.
The team started off with the tough task of facing the tournament favourites, the Tecumseh Rangers.
The kids were a bit jittery to start the game and found themselves down 12-2 after the first two innings.
But then their defence settled down and only allowed 2 more runs in the next 2 innings.
Unfortunately, they were only able to muster up 2 more runs over the next 3 innings and the game was called short due to the 10-run mercy rule after 5 innings.
Despite a rough start, the kids played very well, making several good defensive plays, led by third-baseman, Mitchell Myers and the one-two combo of shortstop Parker Morin and second baseman Matteo Ruggirello.
Leading the way on offence was Evan Benko going 3-for-3, Jessica Johnson & Gage Ramsey both going 2-for-2 , Aiden Seabourne & Ruggirello going 2-for-3 and both Jack McCormick and Charley Cope each going 1-for-2.
In their second game against Woodslee, the bats and gloves really heated up with both providing a stellar defence and a potent offence en route to a 20-6 victory.
Benko stayed perfect with another 3-for-3 performance, and both Ruggirello and Johnson went 4-for-4.
Seabourne, Ramsey and Carter Dyck all went 3-for-4, youngster Noah Schroeder hammered out 2 hits in his 3 at-bats while Jack McCormick and Morin went 2-for-4, including an in-the-park homerun for “Yellow Light” Morin.
But the Silver Slugger award for this game belonged to Myers who was 3-for-4 with two triples, one of which cleared the bases.
With the initial two-game round-robin portion completed the Knights went on to the sudden-death playoff portion, matching up with a young, but determined Amherstburg club.
Feeling quite confident after their victory over Woodslee, the boys (and girl) of Kingsville, kept the train rolling with another lopsided 23-11 victory.
Seabourne led off his team and went a perfect 4-for-4, with a double that scored two runs to start the 2nd inning. Ruggirello, went 3-for-4 and scored with all four plate appearances.
Benko went 3-for-4, including a double to get his team up 2-0 in the first inning.
Myers continued with his hitting display going 4-for-4 and another triple in the fourth with the bases juiced.
Morin’s hot bat was still sizzling from the Woodslee game as the veteran shortstop went 4-for-4 as well.
Ramsey provided more offence hitting 3-for-4 and continued to dominate at first-base making several nice catches, including a few that had him stretching to his limit.
Johnson 3-for-4, Dyck 3-for-3, Schroeder 1-for-2 with a SAC, McCormick 2-for-3 and Abram Fehr went 3-for-3 and had completed several nice plays from the pitchers mound.
With a playoff round victory in the books, the Knights were off to the quarter-finals to play an undefeated Essex squad.
Kingsville celebrating after a big victory against Amherstburg.
Essex had been having it’s way with most of their opposition so far in the tournament and Kingsville knew they had a tall task ahead of them.
The kids got off to a rocky start, spotting Essex 11 runs after the first two innings and found themselves down by 7-runs heading into the third inning.
Undeterred, the Knights fired up the bats and rang up 6-runs to cut the lead to 1-run.
However, they were unable to hold off a very determined Essex squad who eventually defeated the home-town team by a score of 23-10.
All of the kids played very well in this game.
From a solid Benko and Schroeder behind the plate, to McCormick and Cope providing great defence in the outfield, the kids in blue represented Kingsville very well.
Key performances in Game 4 go to Cope, Dyck, Johnson, Myers who went 3-for-3, Ruggirello, Seabourne, Morin and Schroeder 2-for-3 and Fehr going 2-for-2.
The coaching staff is extremely proud of these players. Their only losses came from Tecumseh and Essex, who battled it out in the Finals. Great job kids!
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