Another solid report from Jimmy Chamblee and the crew down in Orlando, Florida at the AAU 9U National Tournament. The GBC team is getting it done and against very tough baseball competition. Good luck guys and we look forward to more good news from Jimmy and the gang at the tournament.
jimmy said,
on July 12th, 2007 at 7:41 pm
The buzz around the Disney fields all week has been about the “big kid†from Puerto Rico. The kid is 6′ tall and I’d say 180 lbs. Not bad for a 9 year old. And he can hit home runs and bring the heat. Well, he didn’t pitch during pool play. Puerto Rico was saving him for bracket play. Well, so much for finishing first in pool play. We get to face the Puerto Rico and the big kid. We knew it was gonna be a battle and it was.
We are the visiting team and do not score in the top of the first. PR scores 1 in the bottom of the first and goes on top 1-0. In the 2nd, Tyson Poe is at bat w/ 2 outs and hits a ball to second and the first baseman drops the throw.
That was a gift. Tyson steals second and scores when Luke Robinson hits a hard smash to the left for a single. Walton Chamblee gets to run for our catcher Luke and steals second and advances to third on a wild throw. Andrew Robinson lays down a perfect bunt and scores Walton. GBC gooes up 2-1 in the top of the second. PR answers with a run for 2-2 after 2. Luke Gessell led off the the top of the 3rd with a single to left and steals second. He advances to third on a passed ball and scores on a sacrifice fly by Ceasar Trejo to make it 3-2 GBC. Lightning delays the game by an hour. We resume play and the score is still 3-2 in the top of the 5th. PR scores and ties it at 3 all after 5 innings. We do not score in top of the 6th. The “big kid†leads off the bottom of the 6th and flies out to Walton in left. Then it gets interesting as the PR gets a single and they steal second. After Trevor Clemons strikes out a PR batter, they get another single and advance the winning runner to third with 2 outs. Fortunately, the next batter grounded out to Carter Williams at third base. We are on to extra innings and no “big kid†on the mound. In AAU, you can only pitch 6 innings every other day. Trevor led off the 7th with a walk and stole second. Tyson Poe advanced him to third with a force out at second. The next batter is Luke Robinson and he lays down a perfect squeeze bunt to score Trevor and put GBC up 4-3 in the top of the 7th. Carter Williams comes in and closes out Puerto Rico in the bottom of the 7th and GBC wins a nail-biter 4-3.
Trevor Clemons pitched a great game and gave up only one earned run in 6 innings.
Next up is Knoxville Stars again tomorrow at noon.*****Keep it coming Jimmy and keep it rolling GBC.*****
Great article. These boys have proven they deserve to be champs again!
If we beat Knoxville, it will be Team Nike or East Cobb Astros at 4:00.
We embarassed Knoxville 19-4 on Wed. and they want to avenge the loss. Kameron Pruitt is going to start for GBC.
GBC lost a hard fought game to Knoxville Stars 8-5. GBC went up 3-0 in the top of the first and 4-1 in the top of the second. in the bottom half, we gave up too many walks and some timely base hits and we were down 7-4. Knoxville executed a rare triple play against us that killed a rally in the 4th. The loss sent us to the losers bracket of the double elimination tournament where we faced the Kennesaw Extreme from Georgia.
The boys were down and sluggish from the beginning and went down 4-o in first. GBC answered with 3 in the bottom of the first to make it 4-3. Kennesaw came back and scored 5 more due to several walks and several hits. GBC clawed back to 8-6 in the bottomof the 4th and went ahead in the bottom of the 5th. Evan Edwards hit a 2 run homer to tie it and we scored one more to go up 9-8. All we had to do was hold to win the game. Well, Kennesaw scored twice and went up 10-9 in top 6th. We needed at least one run to keep the game going and we got it.10-10 after six. The boys were gassed and we had play stoppped 3 times for lightning. Kennesaw scored 4 times and went up 14 -10. GBC fought back to make it 14-12 and that is where the game ended. The tournament was now over.
The boys were disappointed and there were tears flowing but it was a great ride that ended early. All the parents were proud of the boys as they gave it their all. GBC will be back.