The U10 West Bend Thunder took 2nd place over the weekend in the West Bend Tournament. They opened pool play Friday night vs. Germantown Blue and got outstanding pitching performances from Sam Geldnich, Evan Roell and Cal Karnitz as they beat Germantown 8-1. The pitchers only allowed one base hit in the game while striking out 9 total. George Seaman led the hitting attack with a 2-2 night, including a double and a triple. Sam Geldnich also had a triple and Jake Lavanway and Collin Dehne each collected hits as well. In the second pool play game the Thunder cruised past Grafton 14-1. The team collected 12 hits in the 4 inning game with Evan Roell, Lucas Karls, Brady Schmidt all collecting two hits in the game. Dawson Rondorf threw 2 solid innings on the mound and Caden Gish finished up throwing two solid innings as well. With the two pool play wins, the Thunder recieved the #1 seed heading into the single elimination bracket play. In the Quarter Final game Saturday night, the Thunder beat Tosa Titans by a score of 10-1. Another great job by the Thunder pitchers, allowing only 1 run for the 3rd consecutive game of the tournament. Joey Spence went 2 innings allowing 0 runs, Dawson Rondorf went 2 innings allowing 1 run while striking out 2 and Jake Lavanway and Lucas Karls each threw 1 shut out inning apiece. The team collected 11 hits in the game with Sam, Evan, Dawson and Jake all collecting extra base hits. Collin, Brady, Cal, Caden and Trey also had hits in the win. With the win the Thunder were headed to the Semi Final on Sunday morning vs. the Burlington Titans. Burlington was the only team to beat the Thunder so far this season, in the Championship game of the Burlington tournament by a score of 17-4 so the Thunder were thinking revenge. With beautiful weather on Father's Day, the Thunder and Burlington Titans took the field in the Semi Final game. Sam Geldnich started on the mound and shut down the Titans 1-2-3 in the first and the Thunder wasted no time jumping on Burlington in the botom of the inning. Sam Geldnich led off with a double to right center and the hit parade began. The Thunder would end up with 8 runs in the bottom of the first and took all the momentum, cruising to a 16-2 victory. Once again pitching was excellent. Sam Geldnich threw two scoreless innings. Evan Roell would follow with an inning and George Seaman finished it up with a solid inning himself. The bats were the real story of the semi final game. The team collected 10 hits in the 3 innings they got to bat to go along with 4 walks. Evan Roell led the way with a 3-3 game. Jake Lavanway and Collin Dehne each collected two hits apiece while Sam Geldnich, Dawson Rondorf and Caden Gish had 1 hit. The Championship game was a rematch of Friday nights pool play game between Germantown Blue and the Thunder with the winner taking home first place. It's hard to beat a team twice in the same tournament, especially one as good as Germantown. They were fired up and ready to play, wanting revenge on two earlier losses this season to the Thunder. Germantown would bat first and went right to work, scoring 4 times in the top of the first. The Thunder couldn't answer in the bottom of the inning and G'town rode the momentum to 12-4 win and 1st place in the tournament. Goes to show you what a difference a couple of days makes. G'town only had 1 hit Friday night vs.Thunder pitching but would collect 13 in this game. Germantown has very good pitching, probably the best the Thunder has faced all year and digging a 4-0 whole proved to be too much on this day. It was another great tournament for the Thunder team. They went 4-1 for the weekend and took second place for the 2nd time this year to go along with a 1st place finish in the three tournaments they have played in. They are 10-0 in league play and 22-2 overall. Once again it was a total team effort as every single kid contributed to the success. 9 different kids pitched over the weekend and they all pitched well. This team is fun to watch and they are only going to get better. Congrats to Germantown and we get to see them one more time with a state league game July 11th at beautiful Helfaer field. Thanks to all the fans who came out to support us, it was a sea of red and you guys are a big part of this teams success