T4 = TEAM MARKOWITZ

The championship game was played tonight versus Londonderry. A tough game against a very good team. It was a back and forth game. Litchfield was up one, then up four, then up three. Then , Londonderry tied it up in the 5th inning only to see us grab two more in our half of the 5th.

Going into the final inning and Litchfield up by two runs, preventing runs was the task at hand. It was not to be, Londonderry bats were hot and finding holes to put the ball into. Londerry put 3 runs across the plate to take a 1 run lead. The Litchfield boys were nervous, but did not let it get to them, a rallied back to put a run across the plate to tie the game. A batter later and we walked off with a game winning hit and the Londonderry Invitational championship.

A great way to start the season, the boys really showed their competitive and good sportsmanship spirit. A couple very tight games, some really good competition, and an all around great team effort earning the Londonderry Invitational Championship.

Next up for the U11 is the Area tournament in a week and a half.

With only one practice the previous night, the kids did a great job applying a lot of information in one day and played well.

The second game of the Districts tournament was Sunday. The kids were really into this game. There were a lot of very good at bats, resulting in the kids batting around in the 4th inning. The team hit a very good .388 percentage. Unfortunately, most of the hits went to their best fielders. Many solid hits were right at the opposing team. Defensively, the team pitched well, and the infield achieved a great double play involving.

Our first game Saturday (June 25 at 0800, ugh!). We started slow and struggled to hold on to a 3 to 2 win over a U11/U12 mixed Londerry All Star team. We had some good pitching but our bats just were not clicking at the right time. We left the bases loaded the first three innings again in the fifth, and left two on in the 6th. Still, a win for our first game of the season with only 3 practices under our belt.

Our second game followed on the same day, and we battle our way to a 5-5 tie against Quintown. After scoring 3 in the first and 2 in the second inning, we again left bases loaded in the 4th and 5th innings. Ultimately the game went to an extra inning, but neither team could push a run across home plate. Time ran out and the game ended in a tie.

Sunday (today) we played the final game in pool play. We played a very good Riverside-Bradford team from Mass. We started the game by shutting RB down in the first inning. We started our half of the game with one run in the first inning, 2nd inning saw RB score 3 runs to take the lead and we were not able to score. The team was quiet and not motivated in the beginning. The first half of the 3rd inning saw RB put 3 more runs on the board. Down 6-1, our bats finally woke up and the kids turned it around and really got into the game. We pushed across 4 runs and left the bases loaded. This left the score at 5-6 with RB in the lead. We shut RB down in the 5th inning, and we came out swinging in our half of the inning. Down 5-6, we then went on to score 4 runs taking a 9 to 6 lead into the 6th inning. In the final inning, our pitching was great and our defense just as well. We did not allow a run, and won the game 9 to 6.

This completed pool play with Litchfield taking the #1 seed and allows us to take Monday off. In our next game of the Londonderry Invitational, we will play the winner of Hudson vs Londonderry.

Congratulations to the players below (inalphabetical order by last name) selected for this years 2011 U9 All-Star team.  

2011 U9 All-Star Team