Youth baseball, softball players compete in summer all-star and tournament games
HILLSDALE — Hillsdale County youth athletes have been competing in local and regional summer tournaments and all-star games. So far, several teams in the area have had success. One of the major events of the summer youth sports season is the annual Hillsdale County Area Minors Girls Softball All-Star Game.
This year's game saw 28 local athletes ages 14 and under compete. Team Todd coached by Diane Todd of North Adams beat Team Sayler the team coached by Allison Sayler of Hudson. The final score was 27-9 in favor of Team Todd. Leah Headley of Reading and Maddie Horn of North Adams were selected Co-MVPs for the game.
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After the game each player received a medal, and a group picture was taken. The event was organized by Nykol Byrd of Camden-Frontier and Bill Mullaly of Hillsdale. "I am very proud of the girls who were selected and who played in this game," said Mullaly, who helped umpire the game with Bruce Britton of Hillsdale. "Congratulations to all the girls selected to play in this annual summertime classic."
Summer Youth Baseball Tournaments
Earlier this summer, many of the local SMBL teams had their concluding baseball tournaments. Camden-Frontier's 14U team and Jonesville's 14U Orange team made it to the semifinals. Jonesville advanced after winning 9-8 in their semifinal against Addison. Concord's 14U team defeated Camden-Frontier and advanced to face Jonesville Orange in the championship. Concord won 12-5.
In the 12U tournament, Hillsdale Blue advanced to the semifinals after defeating Reading and North Adams-Jerome's 12U teams. They fell to Concord in a 12-0 final. Concord would eventually lose to Springport in the championship. Springport won all three tournament games by one run: 14-13, 9-8 and 7-6.
The Hillsdale Blue 10U team defeated Marshall, North Adams Green, and Springport Blue to reach the championship game. Reading Red 10U defeated Hillsdale White, Reading Gold and Homer Orange to reach the championship. Hillsdale Blue won 9-3 over Reading Red to be crowned the 10U tournament champions for 2023.
Travel Ball News
The Baw Beese 17U baseball team is 6-1-1 this summer season. They swept Bronson 8-4 and 19-4 and defeated Springport in two sweeps recently. Their only losses on the season came to the Coldwater Redbirds in one of their scheduled doubleheader games. They tied the Redbirds 5-5 in their other contest.
Local athletes Dawson Shaw and Lane Pearson lead the team with double digit strikeouts. 2023 graduate Gavin Wickham has five strikeouts. Shaw leads the team with 11 total hits, has three RBI and has scored seven runs. 2023 graduate Jacob Davis leads the team with 12 runs and seven RBI. Davis and Shaw also lead the team in stolen bases. Carter Davis is also one of the top leaders in stats this summer, and he has the team's lone triple-base hit.
Several county players also have been contributing to the Apex Hurricanes 18U travel ball team. The team is 9-6-1 on the year, and former county stars like Jacob Davis, Ben Kunkel, Wade Sommers, Micah Calligan and Tyler Scholfield have contributed to the team's win total.
For more sports, follow The Daily News Sports Account on Twitter and reporter Joe Flaherty on Twitter
Summer Youth Sports stories are published by request: jflaherty@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Hillsdale Daily News: Youth baseball, softball players compete in summer all-star tournament
