Players with the Oakdale Baseball Softball Association (OBSA) 12U Major All-Stars have wrapped up a successful postseason.
Head coach Ben Carlson said the team started off the all-star action with a championship run in the Hilmar All Star Tournament.
“It was a double elimination tournament. We won the championship after we had to battle through the loser’s bracket, a total of seven games,” Carlson said.
Game 1 was against the Newman all-stars and the OBSA squad won 19-1. In their second game, they took a tough 7-6 loss to Crows Landing, which dropped them in to the loser’s bracket. But they then ran the table to bring home the championship hardware.
They defeated four teams, eliminating them all, on the way to the title game. In Game three, the won 9-8 over Red Shield, followed by a game four win, 24-7, over Ceres. Playing Newman once again, they were 17-7 winners in game five and took down Hilmar in game six by an 8-3 final.
In game seven, the championship game, they faced off with Crows Landing, the team that had beaten them earlier in the tourney.
“We won 10-6, avenged the earlier loss and became the Hilmar Tournament 2022 Major division champions,” Carlson explained.
Players, in alphabetical order, included Colin Atack, Jimmie Baker, Jonah Fisher, Tristan Flores, Jaxon Jamero, Evan Krum, Baize Maddock, Lucas Oberg, Jacob Rose, Jayden Silvestri, Brayden Sundberg, Nick Timmons and Jaren Visser.
Ben Carlson served as head coach, with assistant coaches Rick Maddock and Ben Oberg.
In early July, the All Stars traveled to participate in the Newman Tournament, ending their appearance in three games.
“That tournament didn’t produce the same outcome,” Carlson said of the difference between Hilmar and Newman. “We played three games and were eliminated.”
The 12U All Stars played Ceres in the first game and were tied after five innings, 4-4.
“The time limit did not allow for us to complete the final inning, so we went to a tiebreaker, the least amount of strikeouts,” explained Carlson. “We both had four, next tiebreaker was the team that gave up the least amount of walks; we gave up three and they gave up two, so Ceres won.”
In game two, the OBSA team put away Westport by a 20-1 final score.
Game three was against Newman, the host team, and it was not without controversy, the OBSA squad ultimately falling a bit short, 10-8, in a tough contest.
“The host team umpire refused to call balks and blew a common-sense baseball call that ultimately allowed three runs to score in the inning,” Carlson said. “The blown call was, we were on defense and a passed ball at third hit their third base coach, the umpire awarded the Newman runner home, calling it a dead ball, in reality the rule is that the ball is live, the base coaches are a part of the game, just like if it bounced off of a fence.”
Carlson said Newman then took the lead and the umpire “did not appreciate” that the coach was educating him on the rules.
“We almost came back in the last inning, scoring five runs on a two-out rally, but we fell short 10-8,” Carlson added.
He said the Hilmar and Newman tournaments were the only true All-Star Tournaments in the region for rec league and the OBSA put together their all-star team from players on the five league teams that played this season in the OBSA.
“This was a special group of kids; I wish we could have had one more all-star tournament,” said Carlson.
They were able to get on the diamond for two games against the Hilmar all-stars, in a home and away series. The home game ended in a tie, 8-8. The away game was won by OBSA, 17-8.
“The Major all-stars ended up with eight wins, three losses and one tie and we won a championship in Hilmar, a championship we plan on defending in 2023,” Carlson concluded.