It wasn’t the ending that they wanted, but the Eau Claire A’s Blue Team wrapped up several otherwise successful days of tournament play in Iowa Tuesday morning with a disappointing 10-2 loss to Icemen-Sutterer from Minnesota.
Following four days of play, Eau Claire was on top of their pool with a 4-1 record and that earned the A’s the No. 8 seed in bracket play, which started — and for the A’s also unfortunately ended — early Tuesday morning.
The Eau Claire A’s Blue team traveled to Marion, Iowa, to compete among 42 teams at the Perfect Game WWBA North Championship, a wood bat tournament, Thursday through Tuesday. After five guarantee games, only the winner of each pool advances to single-elimination bracket play.
Explaining what the tournament entails and what led Eau Claire to its Tuesday-morning matchup, A’s Blue team head coach Chad Gorman noted that it’s the commitment to the game the players have that is as equally important as the wins and losses.
“We play five pool games, if we advance, we could (have) played three games in a row on Tuesday. It’s tough to have enough pitching for that many games and then with the heat…I’m proud of our guys; they work hard. College coaches can see that,” commented Gorman.
Everyone on the A’s roster is looking to play college baseball. The chance to play in front of college coaches is what draws the A’s to Marion, the recruiting coordinator for the A’s noted.
“There are many college coaches that come to this tournament looking for players that would be a fit for their programs. Our players have the opportunity to talk to coaches and make connections,” said Doug Diermeier, recruiting coordinator for the A’s.
“The thing I hear most from college coaches is that we ‘play the game the right way.’ We run hard, have a team-first approach and never quit,” relayed Diermeier.
Eau Claire’s never-quit attitude was on display this weekend in tough situations and amid oppressive humidity and high temperatures.
Play began for the A’s on Friday morning with Caleb Moss (EC North) on the mound. Moss is a 5’11”, 165 pound left-hander whose ball has a lot of movement. He struck out nine batters in 5 innings of work. But the A’s could not get their bats going. Eau Claire lost a close one, 6-7, to the Diamond Boys Showcase out of Hudson, Ohio.
On Saturday the Eau Claire bats woke up, though, as left fielder Aiden Pankratz (EC North) drove in four runs on three hits to lead the A’s past Chicago Fastball 9-7. Pankratz singled in the first scoring one, tripled in the third scoring two, and hit a solo home run to left field in the fifth.
Sunday temps soared above 90 degrees on the turf. The A’s dug themselves an 0-8 hole early against Cangelosi Sparks from Lockport, Illinois, but Eau Claire fought back to tie the game, 8 all, in the middle of the fifth inning. Clutch batter Ty Barrows (EC North) drew a walk with the bases loaded to give the A’s a lead. Then doubles by Cole Perlberg (Chippewa Falls) and Hunter Sandberg (Mondovi) and a triple by Zach Shipman (EC North) propelled the A’s to a 15-10 victory.
As a team the A’s put up five doubles in the game; two by Owen Welch (Menomonie). Shipman hit two triples.
Sweltering Sunday continued with a second game.
Game two of the A’s doubleheader was with Selects Midwest out of Woodbury, Minnesota. It seemed the Selects were out of pitching as the A’s rolled to a 15-0 win in 4 innings.
Right-hander Cam Buchman (EC North) threw all four innings allowing just two hits and striking out six.
A 9-1 win over Midwest Future Prospects on Monday put Eau Claire on top of their pool with a 4-1 record and earned the A’s the No. 8 seed in bracket play which began Tuesday morning at 8 a.m.
Eau Claire held the Icemen-Sutterer out of Blaine, Minnesota, close in the first few innings of round one of bracket play. The game eventually got away from the A’s and they lost 10-2.
Eau Claire completes the tournament with a record of four wins and two losses. Their record moves to 17-5-1 on the season.
The A’s have barely more than a day to repack and get to Milwaukee for their next tournament, the PBR Summer Championship. They play Minnesota Grizzlies Gold on Thursday night, under the lights of The Rock Sports Complex. First pitch is scheduled for 8:30 p.m.
Most Popular
Comments / 0