The 2018 Mash up Series featuring players from LVBA’s 11u and 12u teams was played this weekend.  The teams played a 3 game, 4 inning set of games between teams drafted by 12u coach Willie James (Red) and 11u coach Mikal Hunter (Navy).

Game 1 featured a battle between 12u pitchers Brayden Somers of the Red, and 47 for the Navy.  The Red team was able to break the game open with an 8 run explosion in the 3rd inning and despite a late comeback attempt by the Navy team, Eisa Khuwaja was able to come in and secure the game 1 victory.

Game 2 was a pitcher’s duel between Kenji Okano (Navy) and Dom Lugo (Red).   Both pitchers threw well, and despite some late inning excitement from both teams, the game ended in a 2-2 tie.

Game 3 was played on Sunday to give the teams a night to think about their tie.  The Red team came out with the sticks blazing early in a big 4 run 1st inning featuring back to back to back doubles form Kaleb Sturman, Big Kat Hamel and Sean Sampson.  Sampson and Hamel led the offensive punch for the Red on the weekend with 8 combined hits, 4 extra base hits and 6 RBIs.  Despite a wave of comeback attempts from the Navy with some clutch at bats from Chad Lybbert, Micah Shelton and Ryan Kavanagh, the Red was able to close out the game with Kaleb Sturman closing the door for a 6-2 win, and closing out the series 2-0-1 for the Red team.

Despite the controversial “sweep”, the Navy wanted some revenge, so the teams agreed to play 3 one inning games.  After losing the first of these innings, the Navy came back with a lot of energy, and battled back to win the next 2 innings to salvage their weekend.  They got big pitching performances, from Jack Page and Tanner Teffs, and Robert Chandler walked off the final game with a bases loaded 2 run single.

Overall, it was a good competitive weekend with a lot of energy from all the players.  We look forward to seeing how the season unfolds with a great kickoff last weekend.