The Toppers finished 3rd behind Team Canada and Xtreme. It was a great week for the Toppers. Beezer's Hammerheads finished 5th and had a great week also. Enjoyed getting to meet him and his team this week.

Mr. Connell failed to mention a couple postworthy points....

1) The Toppers stayed at the same hotel as our team.

2) The Toppers players and families were very, VERY nice folks (even Jeff).

3) The Toppers made sure the sisters were ALWAYS around to provide sufficient distraction to our players.

4) It seemed like the teams genuinely wanted to be friends but had business to take care of.

5) We faced the Toppers at 8:00 am Thursday morning.....the usually cordial & talkative breakfast room was dead silent.

6) Jeff's son is really a HS Sophomore with a doctored birth certificate. OK....not true but he's a biggun!

7) Seeing that the Xtreme (SC) knocked out the Toppers shocked me. They're a very solid team but didn't think they'd have enough pitching to get past North Gwinnett Bulldogs (GA) much less the Toppers.

8) We never had a chance to face the Canadian team but I hear they were very solid, top to bottom. And obviously they were very good as they didn't seem to have much trouble throughout the tourney (I think their toughest game was against the Toppers).

9) Playing on beach sand was a unique experieince!

We played our hearts out against Canada going into extra innings and having to burn our pitching. We just could not get it going the next morning against the Xtreme.
On a side note, I am very proud of my son. He pitched 19 innings of 4 hit baseball, hit a home run, 2 triples, 3 doubles and several singles, plus made all-tournament. The Toppers played a great week of baseball and just didn't have it on Friday morning against the Extreme. The Canadians were the real deal. Not a SoCal but very effective. Deadly team speed.
There were a lot of good teams there.

Those sisters are a distraction to some of our players also.

It would be interesting to see how the Canadians would do at Elite 24. I see you didn't reply to my 6th point. Interesting. Too bad the Toppers didn't have it Thursday morning! As a side note, I was hoping my son got the start against the Toppers so we could compare notes.

Actually he turned 14 last week. He is just a big boy. One of the teams there said they clocked him at 84. I never saw anyone with a radar gun other than UD Cougars and their's supposedly didn't work. I know he was bringing it a few times but I don't know about that fast. As a dad, I was very proud of him and his teammates. They played above their heads at times.
On the loss. We tried to throw a fast ball by the big #25 CF for the Xtreme and he hit it about 350plus. They beat us 4-3. Overall a great experience. I am just sad that it is over until next May. Would love to play some this fall or early spring before they start up.

quote:

Originally posted by Jeff Connell:
One of the teams there said they clocked him at 84.

If you recall our convo poolside, I told you he was right around there. I know what my son's been clocked at and I figured KC was right around 82-84. So I'm not shocked to hear it at all.

Had I known you guys were going to face Xtreme, I would've shared that #25 K'd out on curves.

We threw #25 3 curve balls and he either struck at them or fouled off. Then we thought we could sneak a fast ball by him. WRONG. That is life.

We were fortunate enough to get a bit of inadvertant pre-game info. One of the Delmarva pitchers marveled at how #25 took him deep (but foul) on Field #1...."Hit about the top of those trees"..on a fastball inside. I think my son overheard and seemed to set up with FB away, then the curve.