Dover 12U Cal Ripken sees inspiring World Series run come to an end

BRANSON, Missouri − The Dover 12U Cal Ripken All-Stars fought until the very end during their time in Branson, Missouri for the World Series, after Dover earned the bid a year ago.

After being eliminated from contention in the World Series bracket pool, the Dover motto was basically to play as many baseball games as they could while they were out of state.

After collecting two wins on Thursday and Friday, Dover saw its run come to an end on Friday afternoon with a 7-5 defeat to West Fargo, North Dakota in the Ironman consolation bracket.

"Today was a tough one," Dover head coach Mike Lynch said. "The bats weren't going like they had been the past couple of days. Credit to West Fargo, I don't think their pitcher walked anybody, they didn't make any errors or any mistakes for us to capitalize on, so we had to create it all ourselves, and we struggled to do so. We got a pair of two-run homers in the fourth inning and the sixth, a couple of big two-run homers."

Dover led 3-2 entering the fifth inning, before West Fargo scored five runs in the bottom of the fifth to take a 7-3 lead into the sixth inning. Dover added the second of its two-run homers in the sixth, but fell just short of pushing the game further.

Dover's Ben Cheek had three hits and scored three runs, while Owen Lovering had two hits, and two of his three RBI came on a two-run homerun. Lucas Grigas had the other two-run homerun for Dover in the 7-5 loss.

After exiting the World Series bracket, Dover kicked off the Ironman bracket on Wednesday with an 8-0 win over Hot Springs, Arkansas, and then added another win with Thursday's 7-2 win over Bryant, Arkansas.

"These kids, that was the message they had at the end," Lynch said. "I'm proud of how they battled throughout the tournament; they were in most games."

Despite the loss, Lynch said the biggest takeaway for the team is that they can hang with any team in the counrty.

"Three of the top 10 teams in America were in our pool," Lynch said. "The team from California, and the team from Washington both made it to the U.S semifinals, and the West Raleigh team is playing in the Ironman championship (Saturday) morning. Two of those games we had won, just a pitch here or there or an error here and there, and it changes the game. The West Raleigh game, we were up 3-1, make an error and things got out of hand there, but we were in all of those games, so the thing they can take away is when they are playing their best baseball, they are as good as any team in the country."

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Dover 12U Cal Ripken sees inspiring World Series run come to an end