Reminiscent of the Giants Announcers of 1951. Here were the words heard over the Airwaves of the Eagles Broadcast Network this past Sunday ……. In the exact words of the Voice of Tai Tam Baseball’s Skip Schwartz…….
“The Eagles win the Little League ……. The Eagles win the Little League …..”
Perfection is rarely seen in sports and this Majors Eagles team will be one that we all remember for a very long time for what they did in this otherwise challenging year of Covid in 2021. They pulled off the following:
- Won the league by taking first place in week 1 and running 14-0 over the year.
- Overall winning 30 games of which 28 were in a row.
- Outscoring their opponents in the league by 193 to 24 over 14 games
- Setting the following TTBC records:
- 1st ever Majors Title for TTBC (at least that we could find)
- Longest winning streak for a TTBC team – 28 games
- Most wins in a season – 30+
- Most Shutouts – 3
- Most Hits – Andes Chai – 47
- Most Strikeouts – Max Barney 108
More important than the records was the way the team did it with class and a workman focus to every game. They minimized errors and walks, took opportunities offered by the other teams and terrified opposing pitchers with a blistering .476 team batting average. Coaches Jota and Zach tireless focus on fundamentals and team work were the keys to taking this team to the next level. They should be proud of the result they achieved.
This weekend the Pirates will try and become the 3rd team in History to win the Minors HKLL title. If you have time this weekend please head out to Ho Man Tin to cheer on the awesome group of Tai Tam Swashbucklers……
Here are the game summaries for the Majors
The Thunder finished off the HKLL season in style winning the 3rd place game 13-1 behind Ethan Holland’s pitching and hitting! Ethan struck out 12 batters in 4 innings- that’s right every batter who got out did it via a strike out!! Ethan also went 3 for 3 from the plate with 5 RBI. Marcus Sabella also had 2 hots and 2 RBI to lead the Thunder. 10 out of 12 Thunder hitters had at least 1 hit to end the final game. Great work has been done by the whole team to improve and we wish all of the rising junior players lots of success at the next level. Also, congrats to the TTBC Eagles team for finishing an undefeated season and winning the Championship- amazing job Eagles
Majors Typhoons took no prisoners this week in a 5th place game against the Kaakiro Lions. Typhoons pitchers struck out 8 of 14 batters & allowed only 1 hit on the day. Jacob Flach continued his late season pitching dominance with 7 strike outs on 10 batters faced. Offensively, Typhoons tallied 18 hits, scoring 22 runs. In a milestone event in Little League baseball, Typhoons batters did not record a single strike out. Liam Deplaedt, Miles Evans, Joseph Nelson, Isabelle Smythe & Vance Davis each recorded multiple hits & RBI’s in the game.
The Eagles got strong pitching from Max Barney with a 4 hit complete game under a scorching 100+ degree sun and relied on what coach Harris calls the “murder’s row” of Ryan, Andes, Michael and Ryan W who between them drove in nine runs. This group knocked in 11 runs a game during the regular season. Overall it was not the Eagles best defensive game yet they did what they needed in the heat to win.
The Juniors Division
In their season finale for 3rd place, the normally red hot bats of the Eagles went cold as the Astros outslugged the Eagles 12-2 in a full seven inning affair.
The game was still filled with individual highlights including great defensive plays from the outfield by Rento Ishikawa and Kento Yan as well a journeyman pitching effort from Jacob Lee who threw the maximum of 95 pitches.
The Eagles finished the season with great improvement throughout the lineup and are looking strong for next season. Our two veterans, Rohan Shah and Kaes Carter, showed a lot of maturity in working with the younger players and they most certainly have bright futures in both sport and life. We wish them good luck.
The Minors Division
Two of the four TTBC Minors teams, Eagles and Typhoons were in action this past weekend. The Typhoons hosted the Shatin Martins where the result would impact the Upper Bracket schedule for Hong Kong Little League’s Minors Finals day. Eagles squared off with the Astros for home field advantage. Finals day is slated for Sunday, 23rd May.
The high-flying Eagles continued their winning ways taking care of the Astros in a convincing 8 to 14 victory. With the win, the Eagles finish with a record of five wins and one loss, enough for first place of the Lower Bracket. They will be the home team playing for 7th place against the same Astros squad.
Oliver Barnes started on the hill for the Eagles with Alexander Min and Gabriel Gusak coming in from the bullpen. The trio gave up eight runs on just three hits while striking out seven Astros.
Barnes also got it done at the plate as he picked up a pair of hits as did Charles Tien and Eli Bartell. The Eagles racked up 10 hits on the day.
Like a Nintendo game, the Shatin Martins and Typhoons chose to hit the reset button and start their game anew after their encounter a week earlier was declared void. This much anticipated replay did not disappoint. The Typhoons would ultimately prevail, 11 – 12 after a two out, bases loaded, walk-off single by David Weiss in the bottom of the fourth.
Taylor Gardner led the blitz with a four-hit performance. Weiss, David Wu, Ken Ando and Hotin Woo all contributed to the cause with two hits apiece. In all, the Typhoons registered 14 hits.
However, the Martins put up a fight but would be contained by starting pitcher, Gardner. Weiss and Ando came in as relief. Collectively, they allowed 11 runs on just three hits whilst striking out seven batters.
The CP Division
An exciting Saturday last week saw the #4 seeded Typhoons get the win over the #1 seeded Dragons by the score of 17-16 and the #2 seeded Sharks defeat the #3 seeded Thunder by a score of 12-10. This will set up the rematch of the 2019 CP Finals and the 2021 CP Easter Tournament Finals with the Typhoons taking on the Sharks. The Sharks had won both those previous matchups – will the Typhoons finally overcome or will the Sharks continue their dominance? Come on down Saturday at 8 AM at HKIS to find out! And don’t forget the third place matchup of Thunder vs Dragons at the same time and location will be just as exciting!
The TTBC Leaders
The Minors Leaders
Hits:
Takeo Blakely (Pirates) 26
Taylor Gardner (Typhoons) 23
Donovan Ma (Pirates) 22
Briggs Freeman (Sharks) 20
Kingsley Wang (Sharks) 19
RBIs:
Taylor Gardner (Typhoons) 18
Briggs Freeman (Sharks) 16
Kingsley Wang (Sharks) 16
Takeo Blakely (Pirates) 15
Jack Simmons (Sharks) 14
Strikeouts:
Taylor Gardner (Typhoons) 61
Briggs Freeman (Sharks) 53
Isshin Satake (Pirates) 45
David Weiss (Typhoons) 45
Will Talsness (Pirates) 36
Majors stats
Hits
Chai 48 – New TTBC Record
Barney 47 – New TTBC Record
Gardner 45
Holland 45
Lee 41
RBI
Holland 51 – TTBC Record
Chai 47 – TTBC Record
Lee 47
Barney 34
Gardner 29
Wang 29
K’s
Barney 108 New TTBC Record
Holland 91
Chai 81
Flach 75
Burgess 47
The Juniors Stats
Hits:
Evan Wu – 26
Woochan Nam – 24
Niki Hui – 20
Daniel Zhang – 19
Rohan Shah – 18
Sean Nelson – 16
RBIs:
Evan Wu – 24
Woo chan Nam – 24
Niky Hui – 14
Kaes Carter – 14
Rohan Shah – 11
Sean Nelson – 11
Strikeouts:
Wochan Nam – 20
J Pederson -19
Evan Wu – 16
Daniel Zhang – 12
Theo Sims – 9
The Record Books
We will update on June 15th with the final numbers for the season.
Let’s cheer on the Pirates this weekend to hopefully bring home some silverware…..
A little more drama to come.
STAY HEALTHY
COACH BARNEY