The Official Newspaper for Foster County
The Official Newspaper for Foster County
The Carrington Redbirds 10-and-under baseball team finished ahead of all comers with the exception of the host team at the State Cal Ripken Tournament for that age group in Steele recently. Team personnel are, front row (L-R): Bat Girl Berett Irmen, Cooper Johnson, Braylon Sauvageau, Weston Irmen, Gannon Inglish and Landin Clifton. Middle row: Kreed Kirkeby, Laken Johnson, Adrian Oatis, Brooks Mozelle, Chase Somsen and Radke Hooey. Back row: Coaches Joey Irmen, Dana Johnson and Randy Hooey. (Submitted photo)
The 10 and Under Carrington Redbirds Baseball Team played in the State Tournament in Steele on July 20-22. They finished the tournament going 4-2, with both losses coming at the hands of the eventual champions, Kidder County.
In Game 1, the Redbirds fell behind 7-1 early to a pesky Devils Lake team. The Redbirds bats would be going and they would score the next 14 runs of the game to take a 15-7 lead going into the top of the 5th inning where Devils Lake would score 5 more runs. After a scoreless bottom of 5th and top of the 6th inning, the Redbirds would win Game 1, 15-12.
Game 2 would bring on the eventual state champions, Kidder County. The Redbirds would lead this game 2-1 after the 3rd inning, but after a couple of errors and walks, Kidder County would bounce back to win this game 10-2.
In Game 3, the Redbirds would take on a very much improved Nelson County team, a team in which they beat by 2 runs only a couple of weeks prior. The Redbirds would take advantage of some Nelson County mistakes to take an early 5-0 lead. Nelson County fought back and took the lead at 8-5 after the 3rd inning. The bats would really heat up for the boys in the 4th, 5th and 6th innings, they put up 21 runs over those 3 innings and won Game 3, 29-8.
In Game 4, the boys took on a Harvey team that was playing well in the tournament. Harvey would jump out to an early 2-0 lead, but after that the Redbirds' bats would heat up once again and they scored the next 14 runs to win this contest 14-2, by the 10-run rule and end pool play at 3-1. They advanced to the bracket portion of the tournament as the 2nd seed.
Championship Saturday, would start off with the Redbirds playing Devils Lake once again in the semi-finals. Devils Lake would take an early 2-0 lead after the top of the 1st inning, but the boys would settle in on defense and only allow one more run the rest of the game, meanwhile they kept chipping away on the offensive end and would take a 4-3 lead after the 4th inning. In the 5th, the Redbirds would get on fire and rattle off 9 runs to end the game 13-3 in the 5th inning, by the 10-run rule.
Championship game would be a rematch of the Kidder County team. Kidder County would continue to have the Redbirds number. After jumping out to an early 1-0 lead in the Top of the 1st inning, Kidder County would respond with 2 runs of their own in the bottom of the 1st and 2nd innings to take a 4-1 lead. The boys battled tough the entire game and ended up losing the championship game 6-2. This would be the second lowest run total for the Kidder County team, who is amongst the best 10U team in the state of North Dakota in either division.
The Redbirds finish off their season at 20-10, with 7 of those losses coming at the hands of Kidder County. They also lost to Devils Lake, Jamestown and the West Fargo Spikes.
The boys had a fantastic season and their hard work and dedication showed through the whole season, They were definitely peaking at the end of the summer.
