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BABE RUTH BASEBALL: FOP repeats as tournament champions

beau wicker, pharos-tribune, logansport, ind.
·6 min read

Jul. 30—FOP repeated as Babe Ruth tournament champions with a 14-11 win over Trophy Factory on Thursday night at Steinman Field.

It was the third straight time the Logansport teams met for the tournament championship and FOP won for the second straight year. FOP finishes with a 9-2 overall record.

Carroll's A team was the regular season champ. This year's league consisted of three teams from Logansport, one from Lewis Cass, one from Pioneer and two from Carroll.

Logansport's 15 year old All-Star team competed at a tournament in Kokomo this past week, so the arms were a little tired and the pitching was a little thin, which led to a slugfest in the league title game.

Ashton Shideler had two hits and three RBIs to lead FOP. Max Kitchell had a double and three RBIs. Zac Freels had a single and three RBIs. Micah Rogers had a single and three runs scored. Hunter Sherman had a hit. Austin Keesling had two RBIs. Braidon Packard had two runs scored. John Conrad and Ian Alder each added a run scored.

Rogers got the win in relief, striking out eight in five innings. Freels struck out four in two innings.

Lucas Jones had four hits and three RBIs for Trophy Factory. Jon Moss had four hits and two RBIs. Kaison Good had an inside-the-park home run, single and three RBIs. Kale Sutton had a single and RBI. Aiden Brink had two runs scored. Cooper Hackman and Grady Alexander each added a run scored.

Alexander drew the start and struck out three in two innings. Good struck out five in 3 2/3 innings.

"It was a very good game. These kids on both sides of the field put it all on the line," FOP coach Dave Smith said. "There were 10 of them on both sides that have also been playing for about a week straight in a tournament in Kokomo. So there's been a lot of baseball for these kids in the last couple weeks so they put it all on the line and it was a very entertaining game."

FOP was able to repeat as champions despite losing several standouts from last year's undefeated team.

Smith said 15 year olds Freels and Shideler and 14 year olds Rogers and Kitchell, who were all members of the Logansport JV baseball team this spring, all stepped up this year. As did 13 year olds Josh Middleton, Blake Pearson, John Conrad and Jackson Wicker.

"It's a very promising group of 13 year olds who kind of got their baptism by fire so to speak this year," Smith said. "Josh hadn't caught for a couple years from the Cal Ripken group and we put him behind the plate for most of the season. Blake Pearson filled in some at catching and also did a great job at third base for us. John Conrad and Jackson Wicker were great role players."

Smith also coaches the Logansport 15s. The team recorded a runner-up finish at the Kokomo Tournament this past week. Logan went undefeated in pool play on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Games were rained out the rest of the weekend. Logan won a semifinal game on Tuesday and lost to Kokomo 10-4 in the championship game Wednesday.

The team also consisted of 14 year olds. Logansport did not compete in district and state tournaments this summer.

"Our 15 year old group this year was not quite as strong as its been in the years past, so this 15 year old team had a bunch of 14 year olds on it too," Smith said. "We played Jimtown two weeks ago up in Jimtown in a doubleheader, lost two games to them and Jimtown ended up being the 14 year old Babe Ruth state champion. So when you see that you kind of go, 'huh, yeah, maybe we should have played.' I hope we get back in the Babe Ruth tournament next year. It's going to become invitational tournaments for state tournaments where there's not going to be districts so you're going to get right into the fire with some of the best teams in the state. So I hope we get back into that as we move forward."

Smith said there were some kids this year that played travel ball and didn't play in the Babe Ruth league.

"We had four 13 year olds this year that before they knew the direction that Babe Ruth was going to start going had already signed up for a travel team. But we are putting together a fall program with workouts and I'm pretty sure these kids are going to come back into the Babe Ruth program next year as we continue to try to do things on weekends with kids to keep our kids from playing travel and playing within the city of Logansport like it used to be forever here."

Smith also coaches the Logansport Junior High School baseball team. He said the start of the Babe Ruth season was moved back to June 1 because of school ball. He estimated 75% of his team played either high school or junior high baseball this year.

He said going forward, the Babe Ruth league will play games during the week and there will be All Star type of teams playing some games during the weekends leading into the Babe Ruth state tournament.

"We build our schedule to play Monday, Wednesday, Thursday so we can get our kids out on weekends and play against different competition. The way we structure our Babe Ruth program works really well now with what we want to accomplish at the Babe Ruth level here in town," Smith said.

Like the local Cal Ripken league this year, All-Star baseball was limited this summer in Logansport. But it was still a good year of baseball, Smith said.

"It was a little bit different but it was a great year. The people who came up to the Babe Ruth park this year saw a lot of great baseball," he said. "It was a competitive league. I think also when we look at the number of kids coming up from the Cal Ripken program here in town, I'm thinking that we'll probably have to add a fourth team, so we're starting to build numbers back up. It was a very competitive year. And it looks to be even more competitive next year if we hopefully are able to add a fourth team to the mix."