Day #1
The 55s opened the Huntsman Games with two games on Wednesday, October 14. The first game saw the Huff n Puffs 55 play a team from Naples, Florida called North Star Stone. Two five run innings along with strong defensive play with two scoreless innings paved the way to a 14-11 victory.
Our second game was against the K&D Northstars from Cardston. We are familiar with the Northstars as we always play them in the Lethbridge tournament. We were able to score five runs in two of our innings, but we couldn’t keep the Northstars from scoring four or five in each of their at bats. Final score: Northstars 23 Huff n Puffs 17.
Day #2
The final game of our pool play was an 8:30 morning game against Wenatchee from Washington. The boys were ready to go as we hit the ball hard and scored five runs in each of our five innings. Wenatchee could hit well too and after five innings we lead by a score of 25-17. The umpire didn’t keep track of time very well and we ended up playing all seven innings. We failed to score in the sixth inning and Wenatchee closed the gap to 25-22. With the pressure on, we were able to score six runs in our open inning and closed out the game with a final score of 31-25.
Pool play was complete and we ended up at the top of our pool with a 2-1 record.
The playoff bracket began at 7:10 pm for us against the Detroit Pride who we played last year in the playoff bracket. Two five run innings had us trailing 12-11 after three innings. We just couldn’t keep them from scoring as they had two more four run innings and defeated us by a score of 20-17. Now we were down to our last life.
Day #3
The first game saw a rematch with Wenatchee. Entering the open inning as home team, we held a 20-16 advantage. A flyball out with the bases loaded allowed us to stay alive and pull out a 20-18 win.
Our next game was against the Kauaiians from Lihue, Hawaii. We hit the ball hard, ran the bases like crazy and held a 20-11 lead going into the open inning thanks to a five run rally with two out in the fifth inning. Good thing for that rally as they scored eight runs in the top half of the open inning but left the tying run at third. We didn’t have to use our last at bat with a 20-19 victory securing a bronze medal.
Day #4
Another 8:30 game in the morning in hopes of changing the color of our medal. We saw a familiar team from Alberta, the Sandlot Legends. A back and forth game saw us holding a 18-17 lead headed into the open inning. Unfortunately, we could not score to increase our advantage. A two run homerun sealed our fate with a 19-18 loss.
A great effort by all of the players, and we are very proud of our never give up effort in earning our bronze medal. An awesome group of guys which made our time in St. George a terrific experience!
A huge thank you to all of our supporters which includes our spouses and other players from our league who came to watch us play and cheer us on!
Report By Andy Stroh