The Great Lakes ThunderCats Baseball Club played in the Triple Crown Qualifier recently, a weekend tournament held in Lansing.
The top finishers received a bid to the World Series in Steam Boat Springs, Colorado. The 13-year-old ThunderCats drew the Lake Orion Dragons and the Akron (OH) Astros in the first round. The Cats pounced on the Dragons and walked away with a 7-0 win.
Auston Delmotte had a complete game shut out. Billy Cribbs and Kolden Buehler turned a pair of double plays in the infield while Trey Larocque kept any opposing hit from touching the outfield grass. A strong pitching performance and sound defense were the keys to victory.
The Cats scratched out a 5-1 victory over the Astros to move into second position overall. Nathan Peklo threw out one of the only Astros base runners trying to steal second. Buehler pitched a complete game and Cribbs hit a bases-loaded double to give the Cats the edge. Mike Wood and Charles Dunham’s defense contributed to the win as well.
In the semi-finals, the ThunderCats were matched against the undefeated Winfield (IL) Wolves. Behind strong pitching, both teams went into the late innings scoreless. The Cats’ Quinn Evans, pinch running for Jason Palazzolo, scored late in the fifth on a Larocque single to make it 1-0.
In the sixth, the Cats came back again, sparked by a two-run double by Josh Deeg. Chris Lum went the distance, pitching all six innings in the 5-1 victory.
Following a lengthy rain delay, the championship game was held between the two top seeds, the Livingston (MI) Storm and the Great Lakes ThunderCats. In the first inning, with a runner on, Lum launched a drive, just falling short of the 325-fence to score the only run of the game. Shortly after that, the game was cancelled due to inclement weather.
In the Triple Crown Qualifier, the top two teams receive an invitation to the World Series, held Aug. 6-10 in Colorado. In an earlier tournament, the Cats also qualified for the USSSA World Series, to be held in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, but making it to Colorado was their goal.
The ThunderCats accepted their bid to Colorado, even though they were unable to decide the Michigan Championship on the field.