ASA 18-under State "B" Tournament

ASA 18-under "B" State Tournament
(@ Lake Storey Park, Galesburg)
7/17/10

An extremely busy sports weekend rains over Galesburg, Illinois, with two state tournaments (ASA & Cal Ripken Baseball), the American Legion district baseball tournament, and the All-City golf tournament. I took off from work around 2:30 Friday afternoon to head over to Lake Storey Park and cover the ASA 18-under "B" State Tournament.

Ten teams were in town, down two from the original bracket. Two teams (Pontiac & Trenton) were unable to bring a team in, due to injuries. That messed up the brackets, with some forfeits sprinkled in the first two days of play.

Play began on Thursday, carrying over to Friday, with Saturday being the final day of play. There were a few regional teams in the radio station's coverage area in the field. Galesburg Storm, who are the hosts of the tournament, Galesburg Streaks (which is actually a 16-under team), and Bi-County Thunder. The Storm consist of mainly Galesburg Silver Streaks players, while the Thunder are mainly United Red Storm and Mercer County Golden Eagles girls.

When I arrived at the park, two games were just getting started. It was the 3:00 games, the next to last games of the day. The Farmington Freeze were facing the Highland Orange Crush, and the Morton Mystics were taking on the Chillicothe Blue Devils. These were the top four seeds in the tournament.

First, I headed over to the organizers tent and talked with tournament director Ron Carr. He gave me the results from earlier action on Friday, and talked a little bit about the action up to this point. Ron also mentioned that the tournament this year has received the most press in five or six years. It was also a great weekend for the games, with perfect weather in the offing. He said that this will be the first time in at least three of four years with no rain.

As the third inning began, I headed behind home plate to take some video of the Highland/Farmington game. This was a game featuring some BRIGHT colored uniforms. Highland sported bright orange, while Farmington had an eclectic mix of yellow and blue. The Freeze had jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the 3rd inning. I walked over to the other diamond to check out the score of the Morton/Chillicothe game, which was 1-1 in the 2nd inning.

I did my first radio drop for 1590 WAIK around 3:30. This quick update was to inform our listeners how the tournament has gone, my talks with the tournament director, and the upcoming schedule.

With Farmington leading, 5-1 at the start of the 5th inning, I headed over to the other diamond. Apparently, I missed a good one by leaving. Highland rallied back and won in extra innings.

In the top of the 5th inning, Chillicothe held a 3-1 lead. Annie Fleming scored in this frame on an E6, giving the Blue Devils a 4-1 advantage. Morton starting pitcher Jamie DuBois hit an RBI single in the 6th inning, to make it a two-run game. Chillicothe added another insurance run in the bottom of the 6th, scoring on a wild pitch. Chillicothe beat Morton, 5-2.

The next game on this diamond was the Bi-County Thunder against the Galesburg Storm. Bi-County is coached by Kevin Tyrell, the son of Jeff Tyrell. Jeff, or Fluff, as he is better known, is an assistant for the United Red Storm and Monmouth College softball teams. Fluff and I had an extensive conversation about the Thunder. I also mentioned I was heading down to Springfield next weekend for the Midland Magic Showcase. He said he may head down for a day also, as he spent 13 seasons coaching softball at Rochester (just outside of Springfield). I introduced myself to the other Tyrell, and we both said, "good to meet you." The always-quick Fluff retorted, "you'll both take that back soon."

Many of the teams have a mix of players from different high schools, but these two teams were predominantly Galesburg, United, and Mercer County. Two United players do suit up for the Storm. These squads are also very familiar with each other, with it being the fourth meeting in five days. Galesburg beat Bi-County on Thursday in the opening round of the tournament, and the teams split on Sunday.

The pitchers for the game are Michelle Ravel (Bi-County) and Jessica Davison (Galesburg). Davison was the ace of the Silver Streaks high school staff, and just graduated in May. Ravel, who will be a sophomore this fall, is stuck behind a logjam of pitchers at the school (Katie Bertelsen and Amy Olson). In fact, Olson is the usual starter for the Thunder, but she just threw against them yesterday, and Tyrell wanted to throw something different at them.

Mercer County softball coach Daryl Bewley was in attendance. We talked over several innings of the game, and was telling me about some of his young players. He had four or five freshman starters on the high school team this past spring. He informed me that Bi-County has one of his future players on the team. She is only going to be in 8th grade this fall, but plays for the 18-under team. Bewley is excited about the future of Mercer County softball.

Galesburg took a 1-0 lead in the early innings. Bi-County tied the game in the 5th inning. Ashlynn Winkler led off the frame reaching on a base hit. She scored a run on a Megan Patterson sacrifice fly. It was a close play at the plate.

Winkler had a hand in the game-winning run, hitting an RBI single that scored Kelsey Crain. She reached on a walk, leading off the 6th inning. That would be the eventual game-winner, as the Thunder beat the Storm, 2-1.

After the game, I ran into Zack Creglow of the Galesburg Register-Mail. We talked a little softball, but the main topic of discussion was football, with the season just over a month away. He asked me about my thoughts on the Galesburg season, which should be pretty promising.

Walking to my car, and foul ball was sprayed from the other diamond, taking a bounce, and a hard roll right to me. I made the play!