June 18, 2009

sports

Yellow Springs Youth Baseball

Twins still lead Majors

The Twins pushed their record to a perfect 3–0 to remain in first place in the Major League last week. The Royals also came on strong with a pair of wins over the Cardinals.

The Royals claimed their first win for the season on Wednesday, June 8, with an 11-hit, 16–2 victory over the Cardinals. Eight of nine Royal batters scored in the first inning. Brothers Nathan and Gage Miller each scored three runs and knocked in two others. Nathan Hardman scored twice and knocked in a run, while Adam Green, Conner Gravely-Novello, Joe Thorp, Jake Savage, Sam Crawford, Jaron Fox, Ahmad Wagner and Isaiah Taylor each added a run. Wagner saw his first start as pitcher and struck out five batters in three innings of play. The Cardinals’ two runs came in the second, when Fielding Lewis was knocked in by Liam Creighton, who stole a pair of bases and then scored off a Taran Pergram base hit.

The Twins earned their third win of the season 12–6 over the Cardinals on Saturday, June 13. Jared Scarfpin struck out seven batters from the mound and scored a pair of runs. Grant Reigelsperger, Liam Weigand and Kaner Butler each scored twice, while Eric Reimers, Edward Johnson, April Riddell and Aakeem Truss each added a run. The Cardinals mounted a comeback in the fourth, with runs from Evan Pace, Pergram and Creighton, plus another from Rodman Allen in the fifth. Pergram scored his second run in the sixth inning, when after stealing a pair of bases, he was knocked in by Brianna Ayres’ two-out base hit. Ian Chick then sent Ethan DeWine across the plate with an RBI for the Cardinals’ final run.

The Royals and Cardinals faced off in a rematch on Sunday, when the Royals had a 14–8 come-back victory. The Cardinals were leading 8–5 in the third inning, but the Royals responded in triple from Adam Green, who led the team with a triple, a double, a stolen base and three runs scored. Green again caught for starting pitcher Isaiah Taylor, who struck out seven, stole a pair of bases and scored two runs. Gage Miller went four-for-four and scored twice, while brothers Nathan and Jake Savage also each scored a pair. Aaron Sherwood, Conner Gravely-Novello and Devon Perry rounded out the Royals’ scoring with one run each. DeWine scored twice for the Cardinals, Pace smacked a home run, and Pergram, Theron Orme, William Evans, Chick and Fielding Lewis all scored once for the Cardinals. Defensively, Rodman Allen wowed the crowd with a bare-handed catch in short center field off the bat of Nathan Miller to end the fourth inning.

All games are played Wednesday evenings at 7 p.m. and each Saturday and Sunday at 5 p.m. at the Major League field at Gaunt Park. Visit the Web site at www.leaguelineup.com/ysoyouthbb.

Indians undefeated in Minor League

The Indians remained undefeated to lead the Minor League after the second week of play last week. The team won its first game 13–6 against the Pirates on Monday, June 8. The Indians jumped out with eight runs in the first inning by Hayden and Evelyn Orme, David Walker, Jackson Bleything, Tristen Campbell, Raven Campbell-Knowles, Fisher Lewis and Tony Marinelli. The next inning, Marinelli hit his second home run of the season, while Brandon Pollock, Eric Romohr and Keldon Harker added runs of their own in the third. The Pirates stranded three runners in the second, but Gage Ward, Kylie Johnson and Lucas Hudson-Groves all scored earlier in the inning, while Anna Smith, Marya Weigand and Kylie Johnson each added a run in the third.

The Reds pushed their record to 2–1 with a powerful 13–0 shutout of the Dragons on Wednesday, June 10. James Fulton led all scorers by crossing the plate three times after smashing a pair of home runs and a double. Sawyer HaleWolf, Colton Hicks and Austin Turner-Smith all scored twice after as many base hits, with Travis Scarfpin, Amanda Perkins and Mason Lindsey each adding a run following their base hits. While the Dragons struggled offensively with only seven hits, rookie Noah Ernst proved he has what it takes to play catcher. The crowd went wild when, with the bases loaded, the seven-year-old (exactly as instructed by his coach) retrieved a short blooper hit just in front of the plate and immediately touched home to get the force out and prevent another run.

The Indians notched their second win of the week on Saturday morning, defeating the Reds 8–6 in a close, well played game for both teams. The Reds jumped out to a quick 6–0 lead in their half of the first with runs from Sulayman Chappelle, Cameron Haught, HaleWolf, Hicks, Jakob Woodburn, Jack Runyon and Dylan Rainey. But the Indians’ defense stiffened by stranding three others in the opening frame, and then didn’t give up another run the remainder of the game. The Indians’ Hayden Orme scored a pair off a double and a triple, while Fisher Lewis added two more after hitting a single and a double. Marinelli continued his streak by scoring a pair of runs, including his third home run of the young season, while Parker Bleything scored when batted in by Eric Romohr.

All games are played Saturday mornings, and Monday and Wednesday evenings, at the southeast corner of Gaunt Park. Visit the Web site www.leaguelineup.com/ysoyouthbb.

Need the right one to lead t-ball

By Jimmy Chesire

On Friday, June 5, it was a beautiful night when 75 children showed up with their parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, brothers and sisters to Perry League t-ball, and I led and coordinated what will be my 25th and final annual opening night.

O Lord, have mercy on my soul! Can this be? Can I do this? Retire at the end of this season and hang up my t-ball cap?

I think so. But not before we, Chris Murphy, my long-time co-coordinator (15-plus years and counting), and my other “regulars,” can find a person or pair of persons bearing the proper spiritual, emotional and intellectual gifts the program requires:

• Being decidedly anti-authoritarian;

• Being patient, loving, tender and highly tolerant of ambiguity — and unafraid of a bit of chaos and toddler-like disorder;

• Being willing to let little children be little children;

• Being willing to work at getting 10-20-30 little kids’ names right (at least once a week);

• Being happy about children and adults simply sitting in the dust, in the often powdery dirt of the Gaunt Park ball diamonds;

• Being willing and interested in sitting in the dust and powdery dirt right along with the children;

• Being open to “T-ball Taoism” — the idea that there is a benevolent, loving force at work in nature, a force usually characterized by Lao Tzu, the legendary author of the Tao Te Ching, as feminine, a force that will bring forth the good, loving and enthusiastic “Yeah, I’ll do it” volunteers needed every Friday night all summer — 13 to 14 of them each week to help Chris and me pull off the Amazing Friday Night Spectacle, an evening at the Perry League, Yellow Springs’ stupendous “right of passage” t-ball program for all our community’s children, regardless of race, color, creed, national origin, sex, sexual preference, ability or disability.

The program requires a person or pair of persons willing and interested in doing the business of t-ball, choosing, ordering and picking up the t-shirts and caps each summer;

• A person willing to raise the money to pay for the program — done mainly by showing up each week, by letting all the wonderful, loving adults know what it costs and having the chutzpah to simply ask this unusually generous, exceptionally loving band of adults to give what they can, what they will — being sure to reassure everyone who can’t give that we’ll be all right, that “T-ball Taoism” ensures we’ll do okay, and we always do;

• A person willing to let the children love him or her — a crucially important and often challenging thing for many of us;

• A person acting on the belief that this mysterious thing called life, and this miracle that is each of us, is a thing meant to be happy, joyous and free;

• An adult unafraid to be as silly as the silliest 3-year-old, unselfconscious enough to be “on point,” on call, on the diamond every Friday night, an adult willing to be at the head of the pack (or at the head of the shirt and cap and sign-up table);

• A person willing to give a lot more than you’d think you have to, taking a bit more time to remember the beauties, surprises, joys, hilarities and profundities that are our children;

• A person open to being open, a person willing to grow, willing to give up old ideas and learn new ones, especially that love and patience and joy and a determination to pay attention to the other, to the child, the man, the woman, the brother, sister, partner or helper, are the right things to do in a life seeking the right path to right living.

And maybe even a person mad enough, off-his-or-her-rocker enough, to dare write about these children and these adults and this remarkable program and its unending wonders and delights, its joys and heartaches, its lessons in love, of love. O Lord, have mercy.

Come forward, all you interested applicants — we know you’re out there, that you are within the sound of my voice, that you’re all this and more, that you’re eager and willing to become part of the 39-year history of what is the very best of this ideal and idealized community, this beloved Yellow Springs of ours. Come on out Friday nights, at Gaunt Park, from 6:30 to 8 p.m., and reveal yourselves to us. We’ll welcome you and help you grow into the job that, I swear, will bless you, enrich you and fulfill you in ways you cannot even begin to imagine.

Street Fair 3on3 basketball results

The Street Fair Shootout 3on3 basketball tournament featured round-robin play within divisions followed by mix-division, double-elimination bracket play.

The winners of the within-division tournaments were: 

Grade school boys: 1st place, YS Dawgs, (Nathan Hardman, Ahmad Wagner, Liam Weigand, Taran Pergram), 2nd place, And1, Jrs. (Isaiah Taylor, Kaner Butler, Rodman Allen, Devon Perry).

Middle school boys: 1st place, Snap (Levi Perry, Gabe Rehm, William Fenimore), 2nd place, Tornados (Gage Miller, Kane Willis, Murphy Davidson).

Middle school girls: 1st place, Kids with A. Beer (Lois Miller, Maryah Martin, Paloma Wiggins, Adrianne Beer), 2nd place, Princess Pandas (Kennedy Harshaw, Rachele Orme, Brianna Ayers, Michaela Roe), 3rd place, Tres Senoritas (Maya Hardman, Angela Allen, Emma Peifer, T.T. Colquitt).

High school girls (all from Lockland High School): 1st place, Goonies (Sharice, Destiny, Shanika), 2nd place, Tee-lettes (Teesha, Maria, Keira), 3rd place, Panthers (Danielle, Shanitra, Ashley).

Grade school shooting contest winners were: Elliot Wiggins (free throws), Ian Mikesell (hot shot) and Ameer Wagner (Mikan lay-ups).

Thanks to all the volunteers for helping make this event happen. 

Summer open gym for girls basketball players

The McKinney Middle School and Yellow Springs High School girls basketball program is offering open gym sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. The sessions begin Tuesday, June 23, and are open to any middle and high school girls interested in playing basketball. Players or parents with questions can contact Coach Duncan Thomas at 937-580-0152.