YOUTH BASEBALL: Pepsi rallies past Deichman to sweep league titles

Jul. 15—Deichman had No. 1 seed Pepsi on the ropes Friday night but Pepsi didn't hear no bell.

Pepsi erupted for 12 runs in the bottom of the fifth inning in a 16-9 win over Deichman to win the Logansport Community Youth League Baseball Major League Tournament at Crain Field.

Pepsi showcased its offensive prowess with a 12-run inning that erased a 9-4 deficit when Deichman was just six outs away from a championship.

"We've done that a lot this year. We hit the ball from top to bottom," Pepsi coach Chris Shank said. "We start slow and always end up like that. Last game same thing, we were down 9-3 going into the bottom of the sixth and scored seven runs. They wake up at the right time I guess."

Pepsi outhit Deichman 13-4 with nine of its 13 hits coming in the fifth inning.

Eli Isaacs finished 3-for-4 with a triple, double, two RBIs and three runs scored for Pepsi. Irving Cortes went 3-for-3 with an RBI and two runs scored. Karsen Jackson went 2-for-3 with a triple, two RBIs and two runs scored. Harper Shank went 2-for-2 with a double, two RBIs and two runs scored. Ayden Rife went 2-for-4 with a double, two RBIs and a run scored. Tristen Slone and Dawson Palmer each had a single, two RBIs and a run scored. Hunter Pearson had a single, RBI and run scored. Lucas Angle scored a pair of runs. Ryan Hammel added a run scored.

Coach Shank said his team showed great improvement from last season.

"Last year we struggled. We won two regular-season games. Everybody came back and they worked on a lot of hitting this year because they didn't hit well last year. We hit this year a lot."

The Pepsi pitching staff overcame some wildness to get the win. Cortes, Isaacs, Shank and Jackson combined on a four-hitter.

"It was a little rough," coach Shank said. "We started Irving on the mound. He was the MVP of the league. He's been real consistent, gave up nine hits the whole year. Just nerves or whatever it was, winning the MVP I think kind of gets to him. Then we threw a 10-year-old, Eli Isaacs, who's come a long way, is a lefty. Harper Shank is an 11-year-old who came in and threw a lot of strikes. Arm started hurting, he had shots for school so he was a little sore. Then Karsen Jackson who hasn't thrown a whole lot for us, he's thrown a couple innings, but he's a 12-year-old so I figured give him the ball and let him finish."

Deichman left eight runners stranded for the game or it could have had a bigger lead than 9-4 entering the bottom of the fifth.

"First off, hat's off to Pepsi, they got the bats going at the right time when they needed to," Deichman coach Drew Richey said. "I couldn't be more proud of this team. We're a young team. We start two 12-year-olds, two 11-year-olds, two 10-year-olds and three nine year-olds. So overall we're young."

Both teams went 10-2 during the regular season with Pepsi winning the title by tiebreaker.

"The regular season the difference between the 1 and the 2 seed, the first tiebreaker is the head to head record, we split. The second tiebreaker is total runs allowed, Pepsi had allowed 50, we allowed 52. So two runs was the difference," coach Richey said. "This week the bye was very important. We had to play three games, Pepsi had to play two.

"Pitching became a little issue for us this game. Karson Rombold has been our ace all year. But we had to get by a good team on Wednesday to get here so he only had 31 pitches left. Unfortunately for us after that we have a couple other capable pitchers but just not up to that caliber."

Paxton Richey led Deichman at the plate going 2-for-4 with a triple, RBI and two runs scored. Bryce Hagerty had a single, RBI and two runs scored. Zack Grenert had a single, RBI and run scored. Harrison Richey and Kaleb Jones each had an RBI and run scored. Calvin Holmes and Zayden Mullins each had an RBI. Rombold and Korbin Fritz each added a run scored.

Cortes was named the league MVP. He entered the championship game hitting .656 with three inside-the-park home runs, four triples and eight doubles. On the mound he allowed nine hits in 20 innings pitched with 42 strikeouts.

Paxton Richey earned the league Sportsmanship Award. Pace Setters' Aaron Medal Mendoza was named Rookie of the Year.

The major league consisted of seven teams this year of 9-12 year olds. The minor league consisted of 6-8 year olds.

"I think numbers were up this year. They're slowly starting to come back up," coach Shank said. "It was a competitive league so it was a good year."

"I thought it was pretty competitive," coach Richey added. "There was a little gap between the top and the bottom, but overall there was some parity. A couple of the teams that started off slow got going later in the year and towards the end of the year it was almost like any team could beat anybody. It was a good competitive league and hopefully that continues next year."

Logansport has 12U and 10U All-Star teams this year but did not compete in the state tournament at the Cal Ripken level.

"No state tournament this year. We're going to hopefully look at getting some things going for next year, but this season, yeah, no state tournament," coach Richey said. "The league for a variety of reasons we seem to start a little later. Not my decision but our league just seems to go into the middle of July. I think there's been some talk about starting sooner next year to possibly get some more All-Star teams and tournaments going, but that's a decision for the board to make.

"We've got a 10U team that's put together, I think they're playing their first game here at Crain on Wednesday. I've got a 12U team that I just put together, we've got a lot of capable players. We've got eight 12-year-olds and three 11-year-olds are going to be playing up with us. We've got a tournament over in Marion next weekend so I'm looking forward to seeing what those guys can do."