The 16U Jr. Chiefs Elite Travel Team traveled to Allentown, PA on July 3-5 to take the In the Net Independence Day Blast Championship then moving on to capture the Jakob Gehring Memorial Wood Bat Tournament in Northeast Ohio on July 10-12. “We have finally kicked off our Tournament Season for our 7 traveling teams. Our 10U thru 16U teams which make up our Jr. Chiefs’ program was shut down on March 16th due to the Corona Virus. As soon as we received the OK from the State to resume, our teams began their preparation to get back on the field. This shows that the 17 weeks of hard work that these young men and coaches put in before the shutdown did pay off”, said Joe Scannell, President & GM of Perfect Practice, LLC.
At the In the Net Independence Day Blast Tournament, the Jr. Chiefs secured the #1 seed for the Championship Round by going undefeated in the 10 team pool play with a record of 3 – 0 while outscoring their competition 42 to 7. A walk-off single propelled the Jr. Chiefs to a dramatic and decisive victory over Central Renegades Wentling 16U, to bring home the Championship, 7-6. The Jr. Chiefs were behind 6-5 in the bottom of the seventh inning with the bases loaded when Nate Boughton singled on a 1-2 count, scoring the tying and winning runs. Ryan Birchard started the Championship game for Jr. Chiefs and allowed only one hit and two runs over five innings, striking out 11. Continuing to hit the ball well, the Jr. Chiefs collected ten hits in the victory. Birchard, Austin Black, and Carter King each racked up multiple hits.
Traveling to Northeast Ohio this past weekend, the Jr. Chiefs continued their timely hitting and solid defense to help propel them to the #4 seed in the 13 team pool play with a 3-1 record. In the championship round, the Jr. Chiefs defeated the #1 seed TRL Bandits, 10-7, to move on to the championship game. Once there, they defeated Midwest Stars 16U Blue 9-8 after taking the lead late in the game. The game was tied at four with the Jr. Chiefs batting in the top of the sixth when Ryan Stewart doubled on a 1-2 count, scoring two runs. Despite falling behind by five runs in the sixth inning, Midwest Stars 16U Blue tried to fight back by scoring four runs in the failed comeback. Austin Alberici and Ryan Birchard entered the game out of the bullpen and helped to close out the game in relief. With bases loaded, Birchard recorded the last two outs to earn the save and secure their second championship in two weeks. The Jr. Chiefs collected 12 hits on the day. Stewart, Carter King, Birchard, and Austin Black all managed multiple hits while Stewart led the Jr. Chiefs with three hits in four at-bats.
“We are so proud of our players’ efforts and look forward to seeing their development as they continue to play in these elite tournaments”, said Scannell, “the opportunity to play baseball has been limited but we are pleased that we can offer ballplayers an outlet to play and improve their skills”. The Jr. Chiefs program is housed at Perfect Practice, the Premier Baseball & Softball Training Facility in Central NY, and invites any ballplayer who is interested in travel baseball to contact them by calling (315) 399-4799. To receive all of the news and announcements, follow the Perfect Practice Facebook page at www.facebook.com/PerfectPracticeLLC.
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