“Little League baseball is a very good thing because it keeps the parents off the streets.”

– Yogi Berra

March 9, 2021

Baseball is back in Tai Tam and we started the post covid break with some dandy’s…..  While some great ball was played we managed to only come out at 500 with our teams winning five losing five and tying two over the first two weekends of the campaign.

Now over to the results:

Juniors:

Up at Lion Rock 2 –  A return to much needed game play saw another juniors clash of TTBC inter-program rivals, the Eagles and Typhoons. As in previous match-ups before this showdown did not disappoint. 

The typhoons sprinted to an early 7-0 lead in the third inning supported by consistent pitching and several bombs to the outfield, highlighted by an over-the-fence homerun absolutely clobbered by Evan WU that had the monkeys of Lion Rock scrambling for cover. 

However, The Eagles did not turn tail and go home but chipped away at the Typhoons lead eventually setting up a dramatic walk-off single by Rohan Shah in the bottom of the 6th to claw out an eventual victory for the Eagles 9-8. 

An exciting re-introduction the season for sure. 

Majors

The Eagles took two close games in restart the “dim sum league” coming from behind to beat the Typhoons on the first Saturday  7 to 3 and then winning in  tight pitching duel   against the thunder on Sunday  4 to 2.  Adrian Unertl came off the DL in the first game and held the Eagles to a single run and Noah Lambert and Miles Evans had two hits each while Michael Lee again lead the Eagles with three hits on a weekend when he failed to get out…..

The Sunday game featured lights out pitching on both sides with Max Barney, Andes Chai , and Ryan Gardner pitching a gem for the Eagles and  Ethan Holland, Harrison Waag and Dylan Burgess pithing strongly for the Thunder showcasing the pitching depth of this year’s Majors pitching corp.

On Sunday the Eagles met the Thunder and the Eagles prevailed in an error filled affair 16-1.  In the second game of the day  the Thunder Majors took a tough loss  at the hands of the Buffaloes  14-11.  After getting down early 5-0, they battled back to take the lead 9-5 but eventually couldn’t hold off the Buffaloes from coming back.  Ethan “ALL DAY” Holland came an eye lash away from hitting his second dinger of the year and lead the team in hitting going 3 for 3.  Harrison “Sticks” Waag, Dylan “Chapman” Burgess, Ian “Macho’ Nam, and Sebi “High Socks” Schroth all had two hits each to lead the Thunder attack offensively.  Safe to say next week’s practice will be filled with LOTS of infield/outfield practice to kick some more dust of the gloves. 

MINORS DIVISION 

The Hong Kong Little League Minors Division resumed play at Ho Man Tin West this past weekend after a three month hiatus.  All four TTBC teams were in action and came out of the weekend with a .500 record.  However, it wasn’t the expected two wins, two losses scenario.  Instead, the Minors division recorded one win, one loss and two ties!  

The Typhoons faced the undefeated Angels of the Korean Baseball Club with the Angels jumping out early, scoring four runs in the first inning.  Typhoons’ offence left it late in the game and would eventually post two consolation runs – the final score:  Angels 12, Typhoons 2.  

Four pitchers:  David Weiss, Taylor Gardner, Riggs Ernst and David Wu shared mound duties for the Typhoons and combined for nine strikeouts and allowing eight hits.  Gardner also recorded a solo homerun.  

TTBC Pirates picked up where they left off in December by dispatching the Kaakiro Lions winning by an 11 to 1 margin.  The buccaneers took some time to get their offence going but would post 11 runs over three innings.  

First year pitching sensation, Blake Yang got his first start on the hill striking out three and getting the win.  Will Talsness was brought in from the bullpen to close-out the game.  Yang, Ryan Lem and Will Talsness allowed just the one run, on one hit while striking out nine in total.  

The Pirate bats were led by Isshin Satake and Takeo Blakely each recording doubles.  Minor rookie, Eugene Yan posted his first RBI of the season with a dribbler down the first base line, almost beating out the throw to first.  Scrappy Taku Cheng fortunately/unfortunately recorded what is surely a league leading fourth HBP (hit-by-pitch).  Not the biggest of targets, Cheng shakes-off the sting after being hit and hustles down to first… and prepares himself to steal bases.  

In Sunday afternoon action, the Eagles hosted the Sharks and played to a 10 to 10 tie, somewhat of a rarity in baseball but not so much when there are time constraints.  The Eagles soared to a 10 – 5 lead by the end of four innings but the Sharks took a big bite responding with five of their own in the fifth inning tying the game.  With last bats and a chance at victory, the Eagles were shut down, in order by Rolaids Reliever, Briggs Freeman… to preserve the tie.

The Sharks handed Ian Horng his first start of the season and along with Kingsley Wang and Freeman, managed 10 strikeouts and allowed a total of five hits.  The Eagles went with Oliver Barnes and both Alexander Min and Gabriel Gusak came in from the bullpen.  The trio allowed 10 hits whilst striking out four over five innings of work.  

Ethan Lee and Wang led the Shark offensive each recording two hits on the day.  Meanwhile for the Eagles, Charles Tien and Barnes both had multiple hits.  

CP and above HKBA Team

The TTBC Eagles walked away with a comfortable win today over the NineWest U11 team in HKBA Pony League action by a score of 9-3.  The Eagles pitching was extremely strong on this cool and damp morning with Donny Ma starting it off with two strong innings giving up only one unearned run.  Joseph Nelson then followed up with a 15 pitch scoreless third and Frankie Barnes closing it out for the team’s 4-inning win.

On the offensive side, the Eagles started off a bit slow but then the bats woke up scoring five runs in the third and four more in the fourth frame.  Joseph Nelson, Kingsley Wang, and Charles Tian all led the way with two hits apiece.  Joseph, Kingsley, and Gabriel all had two RBIs each as well.  Even the kids from the CP division helping out today reached base and scored.  

All around a solid fundamental game from the TTBC Eagles to move the club’s U11 HKBA record to 2-0.

The updated Stats

The Minors (not updated since December 1) :

Hits: 

Takeo Blakely (Pirates) 8 

Charlie Park (Eagles) 7 

Donovan Ma (Pirates) 6 

Isshin Satake (Pirates) 6 

Jack Simmons (Sharks) 6

RBIs: 

Connor Ackerman (Typhoons) 7 

Kingsley Wang (Sharks) 6 

Luke Murphy (Sharks) 5 

Jack Simmons (Sharks) 5  

Briggs Freeman (Sharks) 4  

Strikeouts: 

Charlie Park (Eagles) 24

Taylor Gardner (Typhoons) 18 

Briggs Freeman (Sharks) 15 

Isshin Satake (Pirates) 15 

David Weiss (Typhoons) 14

 

The Major Stats

Hits

Chai 26

Barney 25

Lee 22

Gardner 21

Holland 20

Sabella 19

RBI

Chai 23

Barney 23

Lee 23

Holland 20

 Schwartz 18

K’s

Barney 62

Chai 50

Holland 45

Flach 34

Burgess 26

The Juniors Stats

Hits

Shah – 11

Nam – 9

Nelson – 8

You – 7

Simms – 5

RBI’s

Shah – 8

Nelson – 7

Nam – 6

You – 5

Carter – 5

Strikeouts

Nam – 14

Shah – 5

Carter – 5

You -3

Simms – 3

This next weekend should see all of our teams in action including our CP, Tee ball and Seniors teams.

Let’s go TTBC!!!

Warm regards.

Bill