U15 Raiders Travel Team News!
14U RAIDERS WIN FIRST-EVER TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONSHIP
The Shaker 14U Raiders went 5-0 in this year's Bay Village Independence Day Classic en route to the team's first-ever tournament championship. The Raiders defeated five teams from the Cuyahoga Valley Baseball Association to bring the title to the East Side.
The victory was part of a grueling Fourth of July holiday baseball weekend in which the "Road Raiders" competed in two tournaments and played a Mentor to Bay Village to Mentor triple-header on Saturday, July 1..
The Raiders overcame a 1-0 fifth-inning deficit to beat the Bay Rockets 5-2 in the championship game. Parker Hibbard, Jed Rutchick, Patrick Pohlman, Brian Redline and Sam Mintzer drove in runs for the Raiders, while Max Provateare scored twice. David Klein, who pitched four innings earlier in the day in Shaker's 13-7 semifinal win over Garfield Heights, started with two scoreless innings against Bay Village. Rutchick pitched one-run ball for four innings to earn the victory, and Harry Briggs closed out the championship with a strong seventh inning.
The Raiders got off to a great start in their first tournament game, scoring eight first-inning runs against a strong Independence Blue Devils team on Friday night. Tyler Leftridge delivered the big blow, a bases-loaded triple. Briggs scored three runs and had two hits. Leftridge, Provateare and Mintzer also had two hits each to pace the Raiders to a 12-9 win. Greg Pasiadis had a highlight reel catch in left field, one of several he made for the Raiders this year.
Shaker clinched its bracket and a trip to the semifinals by defeating the Medina Sting 5-4 on Saturday. The Sting rallied from a 4-1 deficit to tie the game in the top of the seventh. With two outs in the bottom of the inning, Rutchick singled and stole second. He scored on Leftridge's clutch single up the middle, sliding just under the catcher's tag.
In Monday night's game, Ryan Walling, Matt Snowberger and Tyler Welki silenced the Brecksville Bees' bats in the Raiders' 14-1 win. Walling notched the victory for Shaker.
Snowberger had four hits to lead the Raiders over Garfield in the semifinal game.
Sandwiched around the win over Medina on Saturday, the Raiders lost twice in the Mentor Firecracker tournament on runs in the bottom of the seventh. Chris Knoth, Pohlman, Leftridge and Redline had a multi-hit game. Shaker's other Firecracker game was rained out on Sunday.
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RAIDERS ADVANCE TO SEMIFINALS IN JACKSON MID-SUMMER CLASSIC
The 14U Raiders advanced to the semifinals of the Jackson Mid-Summer Classic on the strength of a double-header win on Saturday, July 8. The Jackson event marked the third time in four tries this year that the Raiders had advanced to the tournament semifinals.
After losing Friday night to the Northwest Indians, the Raiders beat the Jackson Cougars 7-5 and followed with a 9-8 come-from-behind victory over Brownlee's Arsenal. Snowberger had six hits on the day, including four in the second game. Leftridge and Hibbard had two hits apiece, as did Rutchick, who doubled in the bottom of the sixth to start the Raiders' three-run, go-ahead rally. Brownlee's tied the game with a run in the seventh, but the Raiders won in the bottom of the eighth on Pohlman's hit to score Hibbard. Shaker didn't fare as well in the semifinals, losing to tournament champion Highland Heights 16-1.
