CVL All-Stars fall short in state title game
By CASEY CASE
Contributing writer
CVL All-Stars, a team made up of players from Marion, Hillsboro, and Chase County, made a tremendous run at a second straight state championship this weekend in the 12-and-under Cal Ripken Tournament of Champions held at Marion Sports Complex.
The CVL team began play at 7 p.m. Thursday against the Cimarron River All-Stars from Liberal. However, due to dangerous lightning in the area, the game was suspended after two and one-half innings. The CVL led at that point, 2-0.
Nearly 48 hours and five inches of rain later, play resumed and the CVL All-Stars prevailed, 3-1.
The next game proved to be the pivotal game of the tournament. The CVL team faced a tough team from Independence and when the game was over, Independence edged CVL, 2-1. This put the CVL into the losers' bracket where they faced an uphill battle.
After missing nearly two full days of games due to rain, the CVL team had to play three times in the same day in order to stay in the tournament. Babe Ruth Baseball does not allow any team to play more than two tournament games in one day and written permission had to be obtained from the home office in New Jersey in order to waive this rule. The letter was received by fax, and the climb began.
At 6 p.m. Sunday, the CVL team came out swinging against Council Grove and won, 11-7.
CVL began their third game of the day at 10 p.m. against the Rose Hill Patriots. Having defeated them last year to take the state championship, the CVL team was primed for a repeat performance. This year proved to be no exception as the CVL crushed the ball and run-ruled Rose Hill 12-2.
When the lights went out at the ball field it was nearly 1 a.m.
The CVL boys barely had closed their eyes before it was time to get up and play ball again. They continued their dominant play at 10 a.m. Monday and again run-ruled the Louisburg Astros with a score of 10-0.
This propelled the CVL into the championship game at noon Monday against the same Independence team that had beaten them earlier.
The CVL got off to a great start behind some stellar defensive plays and led 2-1 after the first inning. However, Independence got the bats going, and the CVL finally ran out of gas dropping the title game by the score of 12-4.
Independence will represent the state of Kansas in the Midwest Regional Tournament in Waite Park, Minn., this weekend.
There were many great individual performances by the CVL All-Stars. Tournament stats were not available at press time.
Members of the CVL All-Stars are from Marion — Brian Fruechting, Cody Wildin, Dillon Wildin, Wil Case, Isaac Hett, Adam Maag; Chase County — Brandon Line, Jim Lauer, Shawn Talkington, Ben Green, Garrett Benjamin; Hillsboro — Jacob Edwards, Jacob Fish, Tyler Ediger, Daniel Kunantaev. Jay Talkington of Chase County is the manager. Coaches are Casey Case of Marion and Shawn Edwards of Hillsboro.
"This team showed great character and stamina, and earned the respect of every team in the tournament," said Case.
"However, the real heroes of this tournament were Terry and Chis Edwards, and the crew of volunteers who came out in the rain and refused to give up their efforts to make the field playable," added Case.
The rain started at 8 p.m. Thursday and did not quit until 1 p.m. Saturday.
Forty hours and five inches of rain later, this crew had a nearly impossible task of getting the field ready for a ball game," said Case.
Play resumed at 5 p.m. Saturday and field conditions were nearly perfect.
"Very few towns could have pulled off this feat — Marion is one of them — and I don't think it came as a surprise to anyone," Case summarized.
