Area Players Compete for All-Stars

The seventh-grade South Team, named the South Paws, placed second at the all-State Junior High Baseball Showcase.

"What a great weekend. I got to be a part of my second All-State Junior High Baseball Showcase," said Coach Rod Wiethop. "I was given a great group of young men on the eighth grade East team. I thought we might be overmatched when I found out of our 12 players, four were from 3A, one from 2A, and the other seven from 1A schools. However, that wasn't the case.

"We won 7-4 over the North and dropped a tough 11-5 game to the South on Day One. Day Two started with a 16-3 win over the North and finished with a 9-6 loss to the Northwest. We ended 2-2 overall and led until the fourth and fifth innings in our two losses. We placed two kids on the 10 man all tourney team, Effingham Junior High School's Zach Lee and Jasper County's Connor Bierman.

"On the seventh-grade squad, the boys decided to name their team "South Paws" since they were Team South. They played the first game Saturday against the East and won 7-3 and in the nightcap they took a loss against the West 2-1. Sunday, they started out with a l​os​s to the North​ 7-4​. After playing three games, we found out we were seeded No. 2. South, East and West all were 1-2 going into the final set of games but South Paws had more runs so were seeded ahead of East and West.  

So, we turned around to play the North for the championship and unfortunately we suffered a ​los​s​ 11-1​. The player from the South Paws that placed on the all tourney team as St. Anthony's Aaron Webb."  
 
The South Paws finished No. 2 in the All State Jr. High Baseball Showcase in Jacksonville at Lentz Field. Coaches were Ron Webb, Matt Braunecker and Jim Siner.​

At the Opening Ceremony, the first pitch was thrown out by Chicago Cubs pitcher Eric Jokisch

to East All Star catcher Mitch Apke.