U14 Oak Creek Storm Captures Back to Back Tournament Titles

The U14 Oak Creek Storm baseball team started their 2012 season right where they left off in 2011 by winning both the King of the Mound Classic Tournament in Indianapolis, Indiana on April 15th and the Beloit Bombers Round Robin on May 5th.

In Indianapolis, heavy afternoon rains washed out Saturday pool play, delaying the Storm’s start to the season. Since Oak Creek was the only team not to complete a pool play game on Saturday, the Storm was assigned the lowest seed for Sunday’s single elimination championship tournament.

In the first game of the single elimination championship round, Oak Creek jumped to an early 3-0 1st inning lead and never looked back as they defeated the heavy hitting #3 seed, Indiana Magic team by a score of 9-5. In the semi-final game, the Oak Creek Storm surprised the #2 seed, a strong Around the Horn (ATH) Stampede team from Kalamazoo, MI and won by a score of 11-1.

In the championship game, their 3rd game of the day, Oak Creek battled the Indiana Prospects in a tight game that found Oak Creek down for the first time in the tournament, 2-1 after 5 innings. The Storm rallied to score 5 runs in the top of the 6th to put the game away and capture their first tournament title of 2012, 6-2. Timely hitting, sparkling defense and strong pitching was the story of this tournament.

On May 5th, the u14 Oak Creek Storm captured their 2nd tournament championship in as many tries by winning the Beloit Bombers Round Robin in Beloit Wisconsin. In the first game, Oak Creek defeated the Sheboygan Diamonds by a score of 5-1. In their second game, Oak Creek slipped to the Wisconsin Rockhounds, 5-3. In a great baseball game, Oak Creek defeated the Beloit Bombers by a score of 2-1 for the tournament championship. After surrendering an unearned run in the top of the 5th, Oak Creek showed their poise and scored 2 runs in the bottom of the 7th to clinch the victory. Strong pitching and clutch hitting were the storylines for this tournament. As six Oak Creek pitchers combined to give up only 1 earned run in the tournament.

The team has played very solid baseball thus far and looks forward to another great baseball season. The U14 Oak Creek Storm is led by head coach Ron Traxel and assistant coaches Grant Goldensoph, Dan Mumm and Pat McCarty. The players on the U14 Storm are Vince Ellarson, DJ Ellifson, Gannon Goldensoph, Alec Kent, Mitchell Magyar, Matt McCarty, Trevor Mumm, Joe Richter, Bryce Schultz, RJ Traxel, and Eric Wendt.