The Santa Barbara Grizzlies
The 14U Santa Barbara Jr Grizzlies (Chicago Cubs Scout team) traveled to Arizona over Spring Break and placed 3rd out of 16 teams. The tournament is a National Event run by Triple Crown Sports. This is the second tournament the team has entered after winning the first tournament they entered last month.
The Jr. Grizzlies won their first 3 seeding games against teams from Loveland, Colorado, Kansas City and Phoenix. This propelled them to be the 2nd ranked team in the tournament. The team then won their first round game against a strong hitting Brighton Bears team before losing in the semi-finals to The Bat Company sponsored by Nike out of Portland, OR. The team finished with a record of 4 wins and 1 loss.
The leading hitters during the tournament were Joe Firestone, Ryan Guardino and Josh Feldhaus. Louie Shalhoob and Bijan Palme pitched extremely well over the course of the 4 day tournament. Bryce Quezada, James Halleck,?Michael Moschitto, Matt Neal and Dyan Street pitched and played well defensively. Possibly the most dramatic play of the tournament was a throw to the plate by Ashton Borgeson from right field that gunned down a runner to save the 3rd game of the series.
The team will be adding other age divisions in the near future.
Thanks to John Guardino for submitting this great article!!
