18u Red Swings Their Way to a Memorial Day in the Park Title
18u Red rolled into the Memorial Day in the Park Tournament, hosted by 314 Tournaments, looking to make it back to back seasons as the champion of the tournament. And by noon on Monday, they accomplished that feat.
After an impressive first two games of pool play, taking out the Midwest Surge 18u Blue and then the St Louis Sting, 18u Red coasted into a 2 seed in the second annual Memorial Day in the Park. An impressive display of hitting and pitching allowed for them to enter bracket play in a great position to repeat.
In their first game of pool play they took on a well respected ball club across 314 Tournaments, the St Louis Naturals. The St Louis Naturals jumped out to an early 3-0 lead over the Birds, but they fought back by scoring 3 in the 4th and then 3 in the 6th to take the lead and eventually holding on to win the 6-3 affair.
After a tough ball game against the Naturals, 18u Red then went head to head with the Mustangs of Marquette and took down the Class 5 powerhouse with a score of 6-0. With that win, the Birds went on to take on the 1 seed the Midwest Surge 17u team for the title.
The Birds jumped out to an early lead of 3-0 after one half inning of play after Wabash Valley CC commit, Nick King, put one way over the scoreboard in left center to put the Birds up early and eventually never looked back. 18u Red scored 3 in the 6th and 4 in the 7th to push their lead out to 10-1, while Ryan O'Connell (also Wabash Valley CC commit) threw a Complete Game 3 hitter while tallying 14 Ks in the contest.
It was the Birds first tournament win of the season.
