Black Sox take #2 in Cal Ripken Tournament

Thursday, July 2 was an intense and heated tournament among five Cal Ripken teams. The sun was blazing brightly and the Black Sox were competing constantly in four tough games.

The tournament started with two games of pool play. In the first, the Black Sox were able to win against Harvey.

Their next matchup was an overtime thriller against Steele. The first inning started off with a tie as Thomas Allmaras scored off of a Skye Kramlich hit to the left of the outfield and Carrington answered with a run of their own shortly after.

The next four innings left no room for either team to score, as both defenses dominated with strikes, caught balls and amazing plays. It was after five innings that it was decided that they would continue to play sudden death until one team would be able to score. A runner was placed at second base and there were only two outs instead of three. With New Rockford up to bat first, they took advantage of the situation with a Kramlich hit toward the middle of the outfield placing him on first with Allmaras already on second. Then Alex Weisenburger was able to continue the success by almost hitting it out the park allowing Allmaras and Kramlich to score while getting to third plate in the process.

With two outs to follow Steele had to answer with two runs in order to tie the game once again. Although they were able to get one runner in, it wasn't enough. The Black Sox emerged victoriously and punched their ticket to the winner's bracket.

The next matchup saw the Black Sox taking on Carrington for a shot at the championship. Carrington began the first inning strong by scoring one run.

New Rockford was able to answer back with a home run by Wesenburger, allowing Kramlich to score as well as giving the Sox the lead. They continued their success with five more runs by Jackson Schumacher, Vinnie Ruppell, Jax Demester, Allmaras and Kramlich before Carrington managed to end their barrage of scoring.

In the second inning, Carrington was able to add three runs in total but couldn't make up the deficit that occurred in the previous inning. New Rockford was able to score once more at the bottom of the second

with a run from Layton Jacobson to finish off the game. After three innings the final score was in New

Rockford's favor as they won 8-4, remaining victorious and going into their final game of the tournament undefeated.

In their final game, they faced off with Jamestown to decide the winner of the Cal

Ripken Tournament. In the first inning, the Sox were able to take the lead with Kramlich scoring off of Weisenburger's hit. They continued their success on defense as they didn't allow Jamestown to score. In the second inning, however, the tables turned as New Rockford was unable to add to their lead and they allowed two runs from Jamestown. Down by one going into the third inning, Allmaras was able to tie the game, giving the Sox a chance to stay in this game.

In the fourth inning the Black Sox were able to load the bases but didn't score, and ended up giving up two runs to Jamestown instead. In the fifth and final inning the Sox had one more chance to redeem themselves, but the pressure from Jamestown ended up being too much for the exhausted Sox to handle. The final score was 4-2, and the Black Sox fell short of a perfect tournament. Although they didn't end up with the trophy, they fought hard and competed all the way up to the end even in warm conditions when fatigue began to set in.

The Cal Ripken team has three games remaining in the season. They play at home Wednesday, July 15 at noon, then travel to Carrington on Friday. A third contest at Harvey postponed from July 1, was yet to be rescheduled as of press time.