12U Storm finishes 3rd at Littlest Heroes

The Lake Erie Storm 12u team had another good showing with a 3rd place finish in the Littlest Heroes Tournament held June 24-26.

They kicked things off with an 18-0 pounding of the Solon Stampede and then followed it up with a 14-4 win over Andy's Niners. They lost their third game of pool play to the Norwalk Naturals 14-1 to finish 2-1 in pool play and advance to the semi-finals where they were matched up with the Aurora Athletics. They jumped out to a 3-0 early lead but could not hold a 3-1 lead in the seventh inning as they allowed two runs to tie the game and then eventually lost 4-3 in extra innings (eighth inning).

It was another good showing overall and some good baseball that all the boys played and the families were able to enjoy. Great job Storm!

Lake Erie Storm 12U struggles to 6th place finish

The Lake Erie Storm 12U baseball team struggled to a 6th place finish in the 16-team Kirtland Strawberry Festival from June 17-19. They made it out of pool play going 1-1 before losing the first game of bracket play on Sunday to finish 6th in the tournament and their lowest finish of the year.

The pitching and defense was there once again the first two games as they lost their opener to the Willoughby Wildcats 6-5 in a tight back-forth-game that saw Willoughby put up a run in the top of the sixth to take the lead and the Storm leave runners in scoring position to end the game in the bottom of the sixth inning. The Storm bounced back quickly with a strong 9-1 win over The Blaze and secured a spot in bracket play with a 1-1 record and allowing just 7 total runs in their first two games.

Unfortunately, the bats, gloves and arms disappeared the first three innings in their bracket play opener against the Geauga Lake Coasters as they fell behind 5-1 in the first inning and were down 9-2 after four innings. But as they have done all season they found a way to make it very interesting and give themselves a chance at a win as they recorded six straight hits with two outs in the sixth inning to make a 9-3 game a 9-7 game with runners on second and third, but just came up short in the end.

The bats have cooled the last few tournaments as they were hitting over .400 as a team with an on-base over .500 through their first four tournaments, but over the last three tournaments they are barely hitting .300 as a team with an on-base a little over .400 as a team. The strength of the team continues to be their pitching and defense as they have only allowed 5.2 runs per game for the season! Great job to the pitchers, the defense and to Coach Hejduk for his pitch calling.

The Storm looks to break out with the bats and get back to their winning ways in the Littlest Heroes Tournament from June 24-26. Good luck boys!

Lake Erie Storm 12U goes .500 in Geauga Knights Classic!

The Lake Erie Storm 12U boys had another good weekend going 2-2 in the Geauga Knights Baseball Classic from June 10-12. The boys once again played some very good fundamental baseball with some excellent pitching and good defense, though just couldn't find many holes at the plate as they hit into a lot of loud outs all weekend and just were never able to string together several hits in an inning.

That said, they played in three hotly contested ballgames in pool play against some good pitching and very sound defensive teams losing 4-3 to the Diamondboys, winning 8-7 over the Kenston Bombers and losing 5-4 to the Lake Erie Warhawks White before beating Grand Valley 11-5 in a consolation game. They lost two one run games to the two teams who ended up in the finals.

The highlight of the weekend was a comeback from a 6-0 deficit in the late innings to Kenston and a walkoff single to left field in the bottom of the seventh by Anthony Clark to bring home Cole Marut! Great win and exciting finish boys! While they did not place in the tournament they played three very good pool games that were all decided by one run against three very good games. Congrats on another strong showing!