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LAS VEGAS -- The Under 13 division of the 18th annual Desert Classic had a little of everything ranging from an interesting logistical layout to a shocking upset loss of one of the nation’s top travel teams.
The Back Yard Boyz from Central California captured the division with a spirited 11-3 victory over the Las Vegas Baseball Academy Lightning, but 20 years from now the players, coaches and parents are going to remember the semi-final game when a surprising victory by the runner-up team literally sent shock waves through youth baseball.
The Lightning knocked off one of the nation’s top teams with a 6-5 victory over SoCal NNT, a fine-tuned collection of athletes from several states in the semi-finals. Even more interesting was the fact that the Lightning had been beaten 10-4 by the same SoCal NNT earlier in the tournament.
SoCal NNT, coached by highly-regarded Scott Luke, sailed into the semi-finals with a 12-2 four-inning victory over the Las Vegas Barracudas Sunday morning in Summerlin. An eight-run outburst in the third inning paved the way for an early exit.
The game started at 8 and considering that Luke’s team had to travel 30 miles from Summerlin in Las Vegas to Henderson in the southeast to compete in the semi-final round, an abbreviated game was essential in order to gather equipment and players for what have been better-suited for a helicopter trip.
Luke’s squad met the challenge in the first game only to find a challenger that was literally lying in wait. The Lightning coached by Justin Malcolm had already forgotten about the whipping it had received earlier.
The Lightning scored its first two runs in the bottom of the first inning of the semi-finals when Bronson Bowe slapped a single to left center to score both runs after Brian Baugh was walked Michael Macove had singled.
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In the fifth, SoCal’s Zach Honnes got on base on an error; Johnson singled and Matt Del Valle drove Honnes home with a sacrifice. Jesse Kuet had a base hit to drive home Johnson to take a 3-2. The inning ended when Blum hit a shot to right field where Schafer threw to third baseman Tommy Brown, who trapped Kuet and tagged him for the second out. The third out was recorded when Brown threw to Baugh who tagged out Blum.
In the bottom of fifth inning, the Lightning scored another two runs when second baseman K.C. Hoppel had a double over the centerfielder’s head to score Alec Goss, who had walked earlier; and Alex Szepelak, who had singled earlier.
In the top of the seventh, the SoCal team had two out before Honnes singled and went to second on balk and Kel Johnson walked. Honnes stole third and Matt Del Valle was intentionally walked to load the bases.
Kuet singled between left and center fields to drive home a pair of runs and give SoCal a 5-4 lead. Pitcher Michael Macove struck out Carl Blum to end the inning.
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Then, in the bottom of the seventh, Goss was walked before Luke brought in Blum to replace pitcher Steve Garrett. Michael Warning was walked to put runners on first and second before Szepelak sacrified the runners to second and third with a bunt.
Tommy Brown was then walked to load the bases with one out. After Hoppel struck out, right fielder Steve Schafer drove home the winning two runs with a single to left center.
The Lightning sported a balanced attack as evidenced by the fact that no player had two hits.
Pitchers Robert Higgs and Macove combined to strike out five batters.
SoCal had five runs on eight hits, while the Lightning ended with six runs on five hits. The Lightning had only one error, while the losers had none.
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Luke was classy both in victory and in defeat. His loss in the semi-finals was heard in every baseball circle in the country.
“I would rather play five games like this any day,” said Luke, who doubles as the athletic director at Mammoth High School in Northern California. ‘’We were only one or two pitches away and we were all better off to play these guys. Our people learned from this. We really battled. This ended one game early, but the kids did a great job.”
In the finals, the Back Yard Boyz took a 3-0 lead after the first inning. They widened the gap to 6-2 after three innings and rounded out the victory with 15 hits.
Right fielder Brett Bautista paced the Back Yard Boyz with three hits.
“It was a great tournament,” said Back Yard Boyz Coach John Jefferies. “Our bracket was tough.”
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Meanwhile, Malcolm was happy with his team.
“You beat one of the top teams in the country,” he told the Lightning after the loss to the Back Yard Boyz adding that the team’s rebound against SoCal was more than slightly impressive. “I am so proud of all of you.”
Full results for the tournament can be found at www.travelballselect.com or www.lvbaseballacademy.com/dfc/dfc2008/dfc-schedule.htm and click on “game results.”
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