Summer Bash Recap

Our final trip to Domtar Park in Kingsport, Tennessee is in the books and it was a rather eventful weekend.  The Heaters Baseball Club came home with a 1-2 record, which was still good enough to place third in this weekend's action.

In Game 1 on Saturday, the Heaters played the eventual champions of the tournament, the TN Toppers.  The Heaters lost 20-3 in the game and were never really competitive.  The Toppers were superior offensively and defensively in the game, never giving the Heaters much of a chance.

Game 2 was more favorable to our Heaters.  The Heaters shook off the loss to the Toppers by defeating the Colonial Heights 7u Rebels 28-9.  The Heaters hit the ball early and often, scoring 7 runs in the 1st and 2nd innings with 5 more scored in the 3rd to lead 19-5 after 3 innings.  The defense was still shaky at times, but the Heaters were able to out hit and out score their opponent rather easily to allow the club to wrap up the 3 seed for the tournament play and set up our long awaited rematch with the Jr. Pioneers.

It was a long awaited rematch because the Jr. Pioneers were our first opponent we faced the first time we traveled to Domtar Park.  A bad call by the umpire early in that game allowed for the Pioneers to score more runs in an inning which ultimately ended in a Heaters loss.  We wanted a rematch with the Pioneers ever since that game but we never got it.  In today's game, the Pioneers took advantage of some early Heaters miscues on defense to jump out to a 9-1 lead through 3 innings of play.  The Heaters chipped away to cut the lead to 9-5 after 4 innings which set up the final 2 eventful innings.

In the 5th, the Heaters had a runner on with 2 outs when a slow roller down the 3rd base line allowed the Heaters to score a couple of runs after some Pioneers errors.  However, the umpire ruled the ball foul.  At the time, it looked as if another miscall by the umpire would hurt the Heaters.  However, the players rallied and overcame the call.  The club scored 5 runs in the 5th inning to take a 10-9 lead.  The blown call, while it appeared to damage the club at the time, may have turned into a blessing as it fired the club up and potentially allowed the club to score 5 runs in the inning.

The Pioneers scored 2 in the 5th to regain a 11-10 lead going to the final inning.  The bottom of the Heaters order came through with 2 runs in the 6th to put the Heaters back up a run going to the bottom of the 6th.  But like so many times before on Sundays at Domtar, the Heaters couldn't overcome the mistakes.  A few errors and mistakes in the bottom of the 6th allowed the Pioneers to score 2 runs in the inning to take home the 12-11 victory.

This tournament concludes our coach pitch action for the season.  We will now focus our attention to kid pitch tournaments.  Our first action will be next week in the Southwest Virginia Kid Pitch Classic at Dotson Recreational Park in Wise.  We will then follow that up with the District 13 Minor League tournament in Big Stone Gap before wrapping up our season with the Queen City Invitational in Cincinnati, Ohio.