The Northwest Vipers 8 & Under machine pitch baseball team traveled to the Hawaiian Hitfest tournament hosted by Midwest Sports Productions.
The tournament was played at the Blue Valley Sports Complex in Overland Park, Kan. May 30-31. The Vipers went 5-0 for the weekend and brought home a first place finish.
In their first game of pool play action, the Vipers faced the Bulldogs from Olathe, Kan. The Vipers were hitting on all cylinders and pulled away from the Bulldogs for a 21-5 win. Several Vipers collected multiple hits in the contest. Leading the way were Jacob Lewis of Winston, Tanner Sears of Higginsville, Logan Craig of Eagleville and Tyler Houchin of Maryville each with three hits. They were followed by Creid Stoecklein of Maryville, Jacob New of Sheridan, William Andel of Maryville, Drake Simmons of Parnell, River McCallon of King City, Eli Dowis of Conception and Collin Breckenridge of King City all with two hits apiece. Tristen Lager of Stanberry had three runs scored, followed by Dowis, Lewis, McCallon, Simmons, Craig, Houchin and New each with two runs scored.
The Vipers defeated the Blue Springs Crush by a score of 14-1 in their second pool play game of the day. Leading the Vipers’ offense were Breckenridge, Dowis, Sears, Simmons, Craig and Houchin each with two hits and two runs scored. McCallon, Lager, Andel and Stoecklein collected one hit apiece.
In their third pool play game of the tournament, the Vipers defeated the Dragons from Stilwell, KS, by a score of 14-6. Houchin had three hits to pace the Vipers’ offense. He was followed by Breckenridge, Dowis, Sears, Simmons and Craig each with two hits. Dowis, Breckenridge, Sears and Simmons each scored two runs.
The Vipers finished their pool play games with a record of 3-0 which gave them a top seed heading into the single elimination portion of the tournament. In the semi-final game, it was a battle of the Vipers as the Northwest Vipers faced the Vipers from Leawood, Kan. The Northwest Vipers came out on top by a score of 13-9. Sears and McCallon led the Vipers’ offense with three hits each. They were followed by Andel, Simmons, Houchin, Lewis, Dowis and Breckenridge with two hits apiece. Craig and Lager each tallied one hit. Simmons, Sears, Lewis and Breckenridge each scored two runs, followed by Dowis, Houchin, McCallon, Craig and Lager with one run each.
With the win, the Vipers advanced to the championship game of the tournament where they faced the Manhattan, Kan. Titans. The Vipers were able to squeak out a win in a back-and-forth battle that started with the Titans jumping out to a quick 7-0 lead in the first inning of play. The Vipers were able to rally in their half of the first and tied the game at 7-7. The Vipers’ defense held the Titans to just one run in the next two innings of play while the Vipers’ offense tallied eight more runs to go up 15-8 heading into the top of the fourth inning. The Titans’ bats came to life as they scored seven more runs to make the score 15-15 as the Vipers came to bat in the bottom of the fourth. Their bats went quiet and the Vipers could only get one run across the plate to take a 16-15 advantage going into the fifth inning. The Titans scored one run in their part of the inning to tie the game at 16-16 and that’s how it stayed heading into the sixth and final inning of play. The Vipers were able to get three quick outs while not allowing any runs for the Titans. Dowis hit a single to get the Vipers’ offense going. With one out, Lewis came to the plate where he fouled off several pitches before getting a single which advanced Dowis to third base. Sears, the Vipers’ cleanup hitter came up to bat and drove a ball to the outfield to score Dowis from third and give the Vipers the win.
