Here we go, Day 3 in Cooperstown.
The boys needed 2 wins to give them a shot at a possible bye on day 1 of bracket play. They played Chicago Elite, who was 3-1 coming into the game, and Rye Garnets from NY.
They got down a few runs early, but like we learned early in this tournament, these fences have a hard time containing some of these batters.
With the game tied 5-5 and runners on 2nd and 3rd the team from Chicago elected to walk Sean, who had been destroying pitching all week, bringing up Maks with the bases loaded and 1 out. Maks wasted no time in turning a tie game into an not-so-tied game. Grand Slam over the LF fence. Lukas tacked on an RBI single and the boys won 10-5.
The second game was the game that Lukas had been waiting for for about a year. One of the big reasons Lukas wanted to play for the Living Legends was because of the trip to Cooperstown, and as he learned the short fences and loaded bats make a great combo for hitting home runs. He desperately wanted to hit a home run, it was his one real goal. And through the first 5 games you could tell he was pressing. He was in his own head trying to do to much, until he put a pretty swing on a fastball over the middle of the plate. A no-doubt-about-it shot over the LC fence. His smile (and dance crossing home plate) said it all.
Cooperstown Home Run...Mission Accomplished!
The win gave the boys a 4-2 record and a shot at the bye. We still had to wait for all of the night games to play out, including games being played until passed 1:00 a.m. because of a lightning and rain delay we had in the middle of our game. So final pool play standings wouldn't be in until the middle of the night, so it was a long waiting game.
I was refreshing the standing page a lot and we finally go work that we had secured a bye, which was a huge accomplishment for the boys. It also meant a trip to the Baseball Hall of Fame on Tuesday.
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