The Lasalle Titans U13 Green team competed in the Annual Ralph
Hall / Jack McCart Baseball Tournament hosted by Lasalle over the June 16th
to 18th weekend. This was an 8-team tournament that had teams
loaded with talent broken into two pools.
The Titans were excited for the challenge.
The tournament started out on Friday evening with pool play against the Riverside U13 AA team. The game started out with each team scoring 2 runs in the first inning and the Titans knew this game would be a battle. After holding the Royals to no runs in the second the Titans proceeded to score 8 runs in the home half on five hits and took control of the game. Thanks to timely hitting and great base running the Titans were able to prevail 17 to 7 and set the tone for the tournament.
On Saturday morning the Titans were matched up with a strong Oakville team. The Titans jumped out to a quick 3 – 0 lead after one inning and never looked back. They had great pitching by four pitchers and showcased great defense holding Oakville to 1 run over 6 innings. That combined with timely hitting in the fourth inning led the Titans to a 8 to 1 victory and a showdown with undefeated Leamington for first place in the pool on Saturday afternoon. With their eyes set on first place in the pool, the Titans came to play, and scored 9 runs in the first three innings against Leamington with great hitting and baserunning. From that point forward the pitching and defense took over and the Titans only gave up 2 runs over 7 innings on 2 hits. Just a complete team effort in a 9 -2 win securing first place in Pool B. For the third week in a row the Titans had a perfect pool play record!
In the semifinals, the Titans were set to face the Lasalle U13 Gold team. This would prove to be a great challenge as the Lasalle Gold team jumped out to a 2 to 0 lead after the first two innings. Lasalle Green team continued to battle and after a 1-2-3 third inning the Titans tied the game 2 to 2 and started to build momentum. They followed that up with great defense in the fourth inning and in the home half they were able to score 5 runs on four hits including a massive bases loaded triple by Jackson Mastronardi that cleared the bases. With the belief they could win the Titans pitching and defense did their job holding Lasalle Gold to two runs over the final three innings. The Titans punched their ticket to the final with a monumental 7-4 team win and a rematch with Leamington in the final.
In the final Leamington jumped out to a 4 to 0 lead and you could tell this game was going to be a battle to the end. The Titans answered back with 4 runs of their own in the bottom of the first. The game went back and forth and after 3 innings were all square at 6. In the fourth inning the Leamington team scored 6 runs on 6 hits taking a commanding 12-6 lead. This Titans team would not go down easy as it is not in their DNA! They answered back with two of their own in the fourth and another three in the sixth narrowing the lead to 13 -11. The Titans defense did the job in the seventh and held Leamington giving themselves one last chance to win the game. In the home half the Titans got the game tying runs on first and second but they were not able to push anymore runs across and would have to settle for second place. The team had an amazing tournament and played fantastic in all facets of the game. Every team member contributed along the way and again our team camaraderie was second to none. The coaching staff and parents are so proud of you guys and look forward to continuing this growth for the rest of the season.
Go Titans!
Thanks Coach Mike