Jason Ormond, Whitney Young High School (Class of 2009) is playing for USA Athletes International representing the United States as a player and ambassador in the 2008 Torneo Citta di Rimini Baseball Tournament in Rimini, Italy. The coaches are David Vince of Clearwater High School and Tracy Paulton of Pinnellas Park High School. Both high schools are in Florida.

Coach Vince has 421 career wins with coaching experience on the international, college, high school level and has been a ten time coach of the year recipient. His record includes 10 district champion teams, 8 district runner-up teams, two state final four teams, 1 state runner-up team, and 1 college conference championship. He has coached baseball in Holland, Spain, Czech Republic, Australia, Sweden, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii. The roster includes players from Florida, Illinois, New Jersey and Connecticut.

Coach Paulton is the Pitching Coach at Pinellas Park High School. His experience includes being the assistant coach at nationally ranked Seminole High School, 6 years as the assistant coach at Countryside High School, where he worked under former major leaguer, Darnell Coles. He also has 10 years of playing experience above the high school level (college, semi-pro), and has worked baseball camps for Florida State, and All-Star Baseball. He is also the owner operator of Super Skill Baseball Academy in Florida.

The team will meet and travel from New York Kennedy International Airport to Rome, Italy on July 8 and then travels north to Rimini which is the tournament venue, located on the Adriatic coast 200 miles south of Venice. The tournament is hosted by the Rimini Pirates Baseball Club, Serie A1 of the Italian Professional Baseball League. The USA Athletes organization was established in 1991 and provides athletes the opportunity to experience international competition as well as the history and culture of another country. The 16 man roster team is scheduled to play the 18-U Italian National Team. USA Team Athletes must sign a release as the sponsoring organization retains all television and video rights.

After playing baseball Italian style, the team will visit Milan and Florence before returning to the United States on July 17, 2008.

Visit www.usaai.org

Illinois Sparks 5
Orlando Scorpions 5
called a tie after 7
at Perfect Game invitational in the Metrodome in MN
Don't have many details -- Jordan Coffey started and went 4 innings, 1 ER, 2 hits, 5 K; Mike Kane went 3-3 with 2 doubles; Nikko Gomez had a triple and a double

Anyone know how the Sparks (Murphy) fared vs. a talented East Cobb Braves team in MN?

I see that Coach Paulton was assistant coach at Seminole High School. Was the head coach named Gangler? (just kidding).

Norwood showed some excellent arms yesterday while defeating Glenview's new legion team. Josh West, Mike Fiala, and Robert Kennedy threw smoke from the right side. Kevin Edwards was outstanding from the left side. Ryan Lessner was tenacious as always.

Smokey...

Miss ya man!

Hope things are well for you and yours..

We just got back from the Metredome in Mn and played 4 games. It looks as if a couple were posted. We only post wins I notice..lol..
We lost yesterday to a very good East Cobb Braves team 5-2

Came back today with nice win over the MN Starz 4-2
Great competition and all I saw were smiles for three days. Thanks to the coaches that allowed your guys to come along. It will be a memory they wont soon forget. Thanks you PG for having us. Good stuff for me too!

Smokey, we have a couple dandys from OPRF, Picci and Jo JO.

Sparky1 - Great stuff. Man do I miss those days.

Where can I find a schedule. Joe and I would love to catch a game.

Smokey,

I"ll email you our schedule. We will be at ISU and NIU here real soon.

Right now, we are in East Cobb Ga at the PG WWBA 18u tournament.

Sparks are sitting 4-0 and playing good baseball.
Weather has been great and competition, is as always , very very good.

Keep your fingers crossed. All the boys from Illinois are making us proud. Saw a Mchenry Hurricane guy hit a walk of grand slam to come from behind in the last inning. Good Stuff!

Sam Dickstein threw a beautiful game for the norwood blues on Thursday afternoon. He needed very few pitches in the 4 innings he pitched. Kevin Edwards came in for the 5th (and last) inning, norwood won in five.
The Augustana bound pitcher is looking good and throwing the ball hard!

Congrats to a great kid and a strong baseball player, Ryan McMillan. He was under recruited and was just recently recruited to play at Western Michigan. This kid is a strong third baseman/ shortstop, can hit the ball and is a genuinely nice young man as well as a great teammate! This kid works hard and sprints on and off the field, all the time! It is great that he connected with a good D1 program. He and the school are both winners! The schools that overlooked him, their lose! Another Norwood player helped by Rich Pildes!

saw that kid play and he was one of the top shortstops I seen all year. Kid plays hard all the time, has some speed, good bat, and very good in the field. Good player all around, surprised Western Michigan had room this late for another guy, maybe he was a preferred walk-on. But either way the kid is good and I am glad someone finally made him an offer.

Midwest Bruins - A new team composed of Lockport Porters 1 Providence JR, 1 HF Senior and 15 2009 Varsity Porter players + 1 2010.