LYBL were confirmed as the 2011 Under-14 National Champions on Sunday with a win against defending champions, Herts. They were the number one seed from the start of the postseason playoffs and proved to be the outstanding team this year.
Herts went into the Final with Richard Ganster on the mound. LYBL took an early lead with two runs in the first and four in the second inning after a 3-run home run by Jonathan Fretheim. Ganster then seemed to find some extra ammunition in his pitching arsenal and did not allow any more hits for the remainder of his time on the mound.
This gave Herts a chance to get back in the game, but they were badly in need of a big inning which never came. Jose Morillo, Callum Vangundy and Lewis Green each managed to get a hit for Herts, but even when they managed to put runners on base LYBL starting pitcher, Jonathan Fretheim, found a way to keep Herts runners from coming home to score, including tagging out Lewis Green in a play at home. This was the closest that Herts came to scoring.
Jonathan Fretheim was proving to be the Most Valuable Player of this Final, and just in case there was any doubt about this, Fretheim reaffirmed this with a solo home run in the final inning.
With such a large number of travelling fans from Herts making the trip to Richmond and supporting the All Stars right to the very last pitch, the team probably felt like they let their fans down but that definitely was not the case. Herts All Stars Manager, Kent Peterson, summed it best: “Hats off to a very talented LYBL team, but I couldn’t be more proud of our Herts team, they came in as defending champions and I believe proved that they are a team of champions. Great effort all weekend and the team really came to play and showed what a solid team effort is capable of.”
Six of this year’s Herts Under-14 All Stars will be moving on to the Under-17 league, so Herts will be counting on the new generation to make the step up and bring the National Championship Trophy back to Grovehill Ballpark in 2012.
LYBL 8 Herts All Stars 0 (Box Scores)
