14U Jays baseball tournament fun

The 14U Jays came back from a rough start to the tournament being outscored by their first two opponents, Albert Lea and Austin 18-1 on Friday evening and Saturday morning. On Saturday evening of the tournament weekend, the boys started to rally their bats, scoring 9 in the first inning, adding to the final score to win over the Minneapolis Millers 15-8. This win advanced them to Sunday morning where they faced Austin, who had beaten them once in the tournament already. As the game progressed, the Jays took advantage of an unraveling Austin team and made aggressive moves on the bases, Brayden Butler stealing home from 2nd base on a passed ball and Grady McDonough stealing second on a ball four passed ball which contributed to a 10-7 win advancing them them to the championship game against Owatonna on Sunday afternoon. Due to league pitch count limits, which puts a cap on the maximum number of pitches an individual can have during a tournament (125), both Owatonna and the Jays had to be strategic with how they played their defense. Lefty Braxton Nelson, who threw 5 solid innings the day before, opened the game to get the Jays to the third inning where he reached his pitch count and had to come off the mound. He was replaced by lefty Jackson Janike who used up his remaining pitches for the tournament to get the team out of one more inning. The Jays made a surprising pitcher change, placing Corbin Ristau their starting catcher on the mound, and Jackson Janike one of their starting pitchers behind the plate at catcher. The duo closed out the game with 10 strikeouts and allowed only one passed ball behind the catcher contributing to the final 12-7 winning score. The 14U Jays next home competitions are scheduled to take place on June 30 and July 7 with the State Tournament taking place in Brooklyn Park July 25-27.