7YOs win Drexel Tourney Championship in dramatic fashion

Neither thunder, a little bit of heavy rain, a brief windstorm, a 30-minute lightning delay in the 4^th inning, and their head coach’s being called away from the game due to an urgent business matter rattled the URA 7-year-olds in the Drexel Hill Tournament championship game.  Leftfielder Thomas Smiddy (from Rookie B!) was the least-fazed Indian of them all in the bottom of the 6^th inning with 2 outs and the tying run at the plate. He uncorked a perfect throw from against the fence to third baseman Jacob Juul, who blocked the base and tagged out the lead runner to preserve a 9-7 win and earn the tourney championship for the URA boys over Chichester.

The 7YOs avenged a 12-10 loss to the Chi team in the finals of the Mike Armstrong Tournament by winning 16-4 earlier in the Drexel Hill tournament and then holding on in the championship contest.  A rivalry for years to come, perhaps?

Following the pattern of the previous tournament games, the Unionville boys chose to be the away team. In customary fashion, the 7YOs calmed their first-inning jitters and played to a 3-3 tied after two innings. Richie Kline and Kyle Lyons were on base with one out in the second before Logan Shanahan ripped a 2-run single to left and Smiddy knocked in Shanahan with a base hit.

URA had a 7-4 lead after the 3^rd inning, scoring four runs with one out. Jason Roux and Kline both singled and scored on a two-run single by Michael Walter-Dillon. Lyons doubled in Walter-Dillon, and Shanahan plated Lyons with another base hit.

With two outs in the top of the 4^th, the lightning flashed and the game was delayed for nearly 30 minutes. Rallying after the delay, Juul singled and Roux doubled him home with the eventual championship-winning run. URA added an insurance run in the top of the 5^th when Lyons singled and scored on a base hit by Rookie B-er Ryan Nelson in his only at-bat of the game. The Chi boys cut the lead to 9-6 after 5 innings, and scored their final run with two outs in the 6^th before the Smiddy-to-Juul combination saved the game for URA.

The 7YO Indians were a perfect 6-0 at Drexel Hill and finished tourney play 8-1 overall. They outscored their opponents 134-49, averaged just under 15 runs per game, and compiled a .654 team batting average.

Juul was voted tourney team MVP by his teammates and received the game ball and a chocolate trophy! He went 25-for-28 for an .893 batting average with 17 runs scored and 12 RBI in 8 games and played a stellar 3^rd base. Batting average leaders behind Juul were Smiddy at .740 and Kline and Walter-Dillon at .724.

Roux led the team with 9 extra-base hits (including a mammoth homer to center!), followed by Juul and Kline with 7 each. Roux also was the team leader with 16 RBI, followed by Ryan Porrini (a rock at shortstop despite the stones that seemed to accumulate on the basepath near his position at every field!) and Kline with 14, and Smiddy and Connor Schilling with 13. Schilling put his new catcher’s gear to good use, logging the great majority of the innings behind the plate. Jake Abrams was “Mr. Versatile” for the 7YO tourney team, seeing playing time at every position!

Looks like the little shoes of the ’09 7YOs will be some big shoes to fill in the coming years!