Believing that you can achieve a goal is just as important as accomplishing it and having leaders who emphasize that point certainly can help athletes achieve success.
“Since they were young, we’ve told these boys that they could play college ball,” said John Bugher assistant coach for the Eau Claire A’s Blue Team. “We play in these tournaments to face the best players around and get in front of college coaches”
In that regards it was a very successful weekend for the Eau Claire A’s Blue team who competed at the PBR Summer Championships in Franklin, Wisconsin.
“We talked to a lot of college coaches this weekend,” said head coach Chad Gorman.
People like to hear batting and pitching stats but often times it’s the A’s good decisions on the base paths and exceptional defense that propels this team.
“It was good to hear a college coach talk about Kam Diermeier (Elk Mound),” said Gorman. “The coach remarked to me about Kam’s ability to track fly balls. He said ‘he’s unbeatable in the outfield; nothing gets by him.’ I’ve been saying that for years.”
This weekend Eau Claire faced some of its toughest competition yet. Cangelosi Sparks North Black out of Bensenville, Illinoism=, is rumored to have eight Division 1 commits on their roster.
“The Sparks changed pitchers four times on us Saturday morning. They moved over their shortstop, an outfielder…each one was a good pitcher. That’s tough to compete against,” said Gorman. “We were up 5-0 on them at one point, and they were stressed. That gets the college coaches’ attention for my guys.”
“We could have gone 4-0 and won our pool,” Gorman said. Eau Claire had the lead in both of the games that they lost. The A’s ended up with two wins and two losses on the weekend.
Tournament play began for Eau Claire Blue in the night cap Thursday at 8:30 p.m. The A’s faced off with MN Grizzlies Gold. Caleb Moss (EC North) earned the win for the A’s. The starting pitcher gave up two hits and one run over five innings, striking out six and walking four. Blake Bugher (EC Memorial) tossed two inning of scoreless ball for the A’s in relief.
Ben Mettler (EC North), Aiden Pankratz (EC North), Cole Perlberg (Chippewa Falls), Hunter Sandberg (Mondovi), Gavin Thompson (Chippewa Falls), and Zach Shipman (EC North) each collected one hit for Eau Claire.
Friday the Eau Claire A’s Blue team got to play two games in the beautiful Milwaukee Milkmen’s stadium.
At 2 p.m., the A’s played Midwest Halos Scout team. After 5 innings of gritty hard work, the A’s had the lead 6-5. The Halos came out swinging at the top of the sixth and put together 5 hits to score 2 runs and take the lead. Eau Claire fell to the Halos 6-8 in six innings due to tournament time limit.
Owen Welch (Menomonie) and Tyler Barrows (EC North) each hit a triple in the game. Welch was 2-for-3 at the plate with three RBI.
Later Friday Eau Claire faced GRB Rays Illinois White. Both teams were strong on the hill, but Ben Mettler (EC North) earned the win for the A’s. The starting pitcher surrendered four hits and two runs (zero earned) over five and one-third innings. Mettler also went 2-for-2 at the plate.
Aaron Gust (EC North), collected the save as the A’s defeated the Rays 3-2.
Welch and Shipman each hit a triple in the game.
Saturday morning Eau Claire A’s needed a win over Cangelosi Sparks North Black to advance into bracket play. Welch doubled in the bottom of the first, scoring Barrows for the 1-0 lead. Victory seemed possible after 4 innings of play; Eau Claire led 5-0.
That’s when Gorman argued that the Sparks’s drag bunter ran into the ball in fair territory and should be out. The umpire said the catcher was in his way; he couldn’t see, and called the ball foul. Two pitches later that batter hit a triple which gave Cangelosi Sparks momentum. The strike zone seemed to shrink for the A’s after that; an error and a walk….you know how it goes in baseball — one bad inning can change the course of a game. Cangelosi Black scored six runs in the seventh inning to defeat the A’s 9-5. Eau Claire was eliminated from the tournament.
The road-weary A’s get four days rest and then head to their last tournament of the summer, the Perfect Game Battle for the Midwest in Marion, Iowa. First pitch is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. on Thursday.
For a more in depth look at this team, see a future print edition of the Leader-Telegram where both Gorman and Bugher discuss the benefits of playing on the squad and their involvement with the team.
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