Pitching Dominant In Thunder's 1st Place Finish In Neenah!!

   The Thunder headed up to Neenah looking forward to playing against teams they haven't played this year. It was a tournament with 11 teams the Thunder haven't seen in League or other Tournaments. Well the Thunder played some pretty good baseball and came home with a 1st place finish. The pitching was dominant all weekend long as the Thunder pitching staff threw 4 shut outs, allowed only 3 runs and 0 earned runs for the entire tournament. They struck out 43 hitters in the 25 innings they pitched and only walked 13. The defense behind them was just as good as the team only committed 5 errors in the five games they played. That is very good for a 10 year old team and great plays were made all weekend long.

   They started out by beating Fox Valley and Plover in pool play. They beat Fox Valley 14-3 in five innings. Jake Lavanway had 2 doubles and 4 RBI in the win and George Seaman, Cal Karnitz and Jake Lavanway pitched very well to lead the Thunder. Next up was Plover, and this game was a classic pitching duel. With short fences and 4 outfielders, runs were hard to come by. The game was scorelss until the 3rd when the Thunder got two runners on via walk and with two outs lead off batter Sam Geldnich smoked a base hit up the middle to knock in Caden Gish with the only run of the game. Pitching was the story on both sides. Joey Spence, Sam Geldnich and Evan Roell combined for 14 strikeouts and 0 runs allowed. Plover pitching was very good as well as they only allowed the 1 base hit and the 1 run but a couple of walks came back to bite them and was the difference in the game.

   In the Quater Final Sunday morning, the Thunder beat Menasha 10-0 in four innings. The game was scorelss until the 3rd when the Thunder scored 7 times and then they plated 3 more in the 4th to win by run rule. Caden Gish, Dawson Rondorf and George Seaman all had two hits in the win. George and Dawson also did the job on the mound throwing 4 innings with 6 K's and 0 runs allowed.

   In the Semi Final vs. Manitowoc the Thunder lead 2-0 heading into the bottom of the 4th where they scored 8 times to win by run rule again 10-0. Sam, Evan, Dawson, George, Lucas, Collin, Brady and Cal all had hits in the win and Dawson and Sam pitched the Thunder to yet another shut out, allowing only 1 hit and combining for 5 K's.

  The Championship game was the #1 seed Appleton Einstein's vs. the #2 seed Thunder in the twelve team tournament. Appleton got the #1 seed by scoring more runs than the Thunder in pool play as both teams tied with 3 runs allowed. The Thunder were visitors and wasted no time striking first. Joey Spence singled and advanced to 3rd on an error. With two on and two out George Seaman singled to plate two runs and the Thunder lead 2-0 after their half inning. They would add one more in the 2nd and lead 3-0 all the way until the 5th when they broke the game open with 4 runs. Brady Schmidt, Joey Spence and Caden Gish had big base hit RBI's in the inning. They would tack on one more in the 6th and go on to win the championship by a score of 8-0.

    It was a very well played tournament by this team and every kid contributed as always to the success. I can't say enough about the pitching. Other coaches couldn't believe how we could just bring in pitcher after pitcher and they were all throwing hard and pumping strikes. They battled threw the tough sitauations all weekend including getting out of a bases loaded and no out situation in the 4th inning of the championship game when they were only leading 3-0. It was fun to watch and be a part of. The kids faces after they finished it off was priceless and thank you to all the fans who came up to watch us all weekend. You were great as always and we appreciate your help in making this team the special team that it is. The Thunder is now 28-3 overall and have two first place finishes and two second place finishes in the four tournaments they were in. There is only 3 weeks left in the season and we hope to keep this great season going. Next game is Tuesday July 9th in Lannon with game time at 6:00, hope to see you there.