SYAA Pinto teams go 1-2 at invitational
Published 6:59 pm Monday, June 28, 2010
Suffolk Youth Athletic Association’s two Pinto league all-star teams finished champion and runner-up last weekend at SYAA’s Suffolk Invitational Tournament.
The tournament was a warm-up for the teams ahead of regional PONY tournaments that started this weekend. The two Suffolk squads, with the SYAA 8-year-old pinto team, the Nationals, beating the SYAA 7-year-old team, the Super 7s, in the final game, topped the 13-team field.
The Nationals overcame dropping their first game in group play on Thursday to go undefeated through doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday.
The Nationals lost 10-9 to Southern Chesapeake American to start the tournament, but rebounded to beat Western Branch Blue 19-9 and Smithfield 16-6, with both games being called via mercy rule after four innings, to advance out of its pool.
In the semifinals, the SYAA Nationals faced Southern Chesapeake American again, but edged them by a run this time, 13-12.
The SYAA Nationals defeated their Suffolk mates, the Super 7s, 15-3 in the final game.
“We had a lot of highlights. There were a lot of home runs hit,” said Nationals coach Earl T. Jones. “Our guys turned double plays. On Saturday and Sunday, we were tremendous on offense and really good on defense as well.”
The Super 7s were one of only two 7-year-old teams in the tournament and went 5-0 until meeting the Nationals in the final.
The Super 7s beat Western Branch White 14-13, Southampton/Sussex 20-19, Windsor 15-5, Indian River 22-14 and Southern Chesapeake National 18-14 to get to the championship game.
The Super 7s have one tournament title to their credit already this summer. The SYAA Super 7s won the Jim Green Invitational at Western Branch, winning the 7-year-old division with a 23-15 win over Greenbrier Super 7s in the final.
The Super 7s started play in the Super 7 Pinto Regional Tournament at Southern Chesapeake Saturday.
The Nationals started their PONY Regional Tournament, also being hosted by Southern Chesapeake, on Saturday.