12.05.06

Parade of Lights Tournament
Lake Havasu, AZ

A long weekend of baseball but we saw some of the talent this team has and I only think we’ve scratched the surface of our potential.

The boys went 5-0 to win the Parade of Lights Tournament in Lake Havasu this weekend while outscoring their opponents 46-5. We were dangerously close to not allowing ANY RUNS the entire weekend if it weren’t for one inning against the Las Vegas Rattlers and a couple of passed balls on Saturday. The team averaged scoring over 9 runs per game while allowing only 1. What is also impressive is we scored 46 runs in 24 innings and run ruled 3 of our 5 opponents while SHUTTING OUT the other 2 teams.

Our pitching was outstanding. Everyone performed very well and proved that good pitching shuts down good hitting and wins Championships. We only surrendered 1 hit in the Semi-Finals against a very good team (Las Vegas All-Stars) and gave up 3 hits against the always tough Chandler Blaze.

The Mud Hens also turned numerous crucial double plays. Most importantly was the one against the Blaze in the Championship game killing a late inning rally and put down some fantastic bunts to score runs when they were desperately needed.

Some notable performances came from Brandon Koon who pitched one of the best games I have seen at any level. Brandon simply dominated a very good team from Las Vegas and held them to a complete game 1 hit shutout. If that weren’t enough he also had a 3 run walk-off HR to beat the Las Vegas Rattlers. Eric Brossart took the mound in the Championship Game against the Chandler Blaze and only gave up 2 hits and no runs over 5 innings. Eric used all his pitches, change of pace, experience and location to keep the Blaze off balance. He and Brandon could not have pitched any better and Max caught both of these complete game gems. Max really stepped up and took control behind the plate. His put out nailing a Blaze runner trying to steal 3rd was perfectly executed and couldn’t have come at a better time as the Blaze threatened late. Then he came to the plate in the bottom of the 5th with a 1-0 lead with the bases loaded and 2 outs with 2 strikes and drilled a shot down the 3rd base line scoring 2 huge runs to put the Mud Hens up 3-0 and some breathing room with just 3 outs to go to win the Championship.

Lastly, you should know that we were the only team to use more than 6 pitchers over the weekend. We pitched all 8 pitchers and showed our depth on the mound. It worked out very well because we were able to save our Ace’s for the Semi-Finals and Championship.

Tremendous job this weekend . . . now it’s on to Tucson for the Toys-For-Tots !!!

The website will be updated later today with new photos and a schedule for the week will be sent out shortly.

Thank you again to all the parents this weekend. I had a great time with all of you and truly appreciate all the help and support you provide to the kids to make this such a fun team to be on.