Darian Pride got rewarded for a well-placed hit at the TYBA tournament last weekend.
|
|
Last week, Rick Youngblood was a very busy man coaching two teams in last week’s TYBA 25th anniversary State Tournament at Barfield Crescent Park.
This week, he was back coaching the Christiana Crush. His workload was dropped by half, but by the end of weekend two of his players took home a nice check for knocking one over the fence.
One of the unique things about the TYBA tournament is a 10-foot section is marked off with two flags at the 200-foot fence. If a player clears the “uprights” by hitting a home run over that part of the fence, they received a cash prize. The Crush had two players achieve this feat during the weekend’s action.
The first one came on Saturday afternoon during their 9-8 win over the Smyrna Outlaws in the 11/12 Open Kid-Pitch division. Unionville native, Darian Pride, took a 3-2 pitch and crushed it over the “uprights” in right center.
“I knew it was gone, because it went pretty high off the bat,” Pride said. He later added, “I was kind of surprised that it went in between the small space.”
Witnesses say the ball landed into the second row of the parking lot. Pride’s reward from the league was a $250 check. During Sunday’s tournament, one of his teammates put one over the fence and through the “uprights” for a $150.
The Crush lost in the title game to the Tennessee Bulldogs.
Speaking of the Outlaws, they are known for their chemistry since most of them have played together for several years.
“It’s just like we know each other very well,” Outlaws DH and the coach’s son Hunter Moseley said.
Fellow teammate pitcher and third baseman Eric Castillo added, “We are like brothers and family on this team.”
Some of the teams will be back at Barfield next week for the BPA World Series, including the Outlaws. Their players and coaches agree this tournament helped prepared them for the upcoming one.
“It will help our confidence heading into next week,” Outlaws second baseman Reese McClanahan said.
They also fell to their friendly rivals, the Bulldogs, in last Sunday’s tournament.
Another great moment came in the 11/12 kid-pitch tournament, when Cole Hill brought home the winning run for the Cannon County All-Stars with a base hit in the final inning.
All but the championship games had a time limit, Hill came up to bat with less than a minute left in their game against the Lascassas Panthers.
The game was tied at 7-7, and runners were on second on third.
His parents were sitting right next to the scorer’s tables and you could hear them all over the complex. Hill took the pitch and he almost put it over the fence. It did bring home the winning runs and Cannon County won 9-7.
“We got a lot of boys that won’t quit,” Cannon County All-Stars head coach Thad Raines said.
Hill added “It was a big win for our team.”
However, the Buchanan Yellow Jackets won the age division.
Next week, more great youth baseball action heads to Murfreesboro with the BPA World Series starting this weekend. |
Email
Print
Facebook
StumbleUpon
Google
Yahoo!