Winners At Woodside!!!

       The West Bend Thunder won the 12 team Woodside Sports Complex Tournament, winning 3 straight games on Sunday over some very good baseball teams. In total, the team played six games during the tournament and went 5-1. They went 2-1 in pool play to advance to the 6 team bracket as the 5th seed.

       Pool Play Game 1:  Thunder 14 Merton 6   The Thunder scored 6 runs in the bottom of the 1st only to have Merton come back with 6 of their own in the top of the 2nd to tie. The Thunder would eventually pull away and win in four innings. Sam, Evan, George, and Jake each had 2 hits. Joey, Cal, Caden and Brady each had 1. Evan Roell, Collin Dehne and Joey Spence pitched the Thunder to victory.

       Pool Play Game 2:  Thunder 9 Indiana Longhorns 0  The Thunder pitchers combine for the teams first ever No Hitter. Sam Geldnich pitched the first 3 innings and faced the minimum 9 batters. He struck out 3 and walked only 1 which was erased by a double play on a great play by George Seaman. Cal Karnitz pitched the last 3 innings. He walked 2 and struck out 1. Evan, George, Jake, Collin and Trey all had hits in the game.

      Pool Play Game 3:   Thunder 3 Burnett County 9    This was a game the Thunder would like to forget. They gave up 7 runs in the bottom of first on 4 errors and allowed 7 unearned runs in the game with 8 errors. Sam, Evan, Collin, Dawson and Lucas all had hits in the game. Jake LaVanway pitched 2 and 2/3 solid innings and Caden Gish pitched a perfect inning with a strike out.

      Bracket Play Game 4:  Thunder 3  Huntley Nationals 0   Thunder opened the single elimination bracket play with a shut out over the #4 seed. Dawson Rondorf pitched 4 scoreless innings, allowing 2 hits, 2 walks to go with 2 strike outs. Collin Dehne finished up with 2 innings, allowing no hits while striking out 2. Sam, George, Joey, Dawson and Brady all had hits in the game.

      Bracket Play Game 5:   Thunder 8  FCA Tigers 1   The Thunder took down the #1 seed on another excellent pitching performance. Sam Geldnich went 5 strong innings allowing 1 run on only 2 hits while striking out 6. Collin Dehne finished up the game with a scoreless 6th and had 2 strikeouts in the inning. The Thunder trailed 1-0 in the 4th when they scored 3 times to take the lead. They would add some insurance with a 5 run 6th. Sam led the hitting attack with a 2-3 game to go along with a double and 4 RBI. Joey spence had 2 hits and a RBI. Evan Roell also had a hit in the game. The team only had 5 hits but drew 7 walks and made them count.

       Championship Game 6:  Thunder 7  Plainview Diamond Kings 6  in extra innings. Plainview started quickly with a 2 run top of the 1st. They had 3 hits in the inning to plate the runs. They added a run in the top of the 4th to lead 3-0. The Thunder would score 1 in the bottom of the inning to trim the lead to 3-1. It stayed that way until the bottom of the 5th when the Thunder scored 4 times to take their first lead of the game 5-4. Joey Spence started the rally with a 1 out single. Collin Dehne would follow with a single and then Trey Larson would knock them both in with a 2 RBI single. After another out, the Thunder made some 2 out noise. Lucas Karls and Cal Karnitz would both follow with RBI hits and the Thunder had their first lead of the game at 5-4 with 1 inning to play. Cal Karnitz got the first two hitters to ground out and the thunder were 1 out away from a comeback win the championship. But Plainview didn't quit, a solid single to left put the tying run on and then the next batter would smoke a triple to right center to tie the game and grab the momentum right back from the Thunder. The Thunder held them there getting a ground out to leave the runner on 3rd. The Thunder went quietly in the bottom of the inning so we were headed to extra innings.

     In extra innings you play California rules which is the last out from the previous inning starts on 2nd base and there is 1 out and every batter has a count of 2-1. The Thunder would hold them in the 7th by getting 2 quick groundouts so they came up in the bottom hoping to put it away. But no such luck, the Thunder themselves were held scoreless so we were headed to the 8th. Plainview would grab the lead on a throwing error by Lucas Karls but the Thunder would hold them there as Evan Roell would throw out a base stealer at 3rd to keep it a 1 run game. So up came the Thunder to try to tie or win the game. The first batter would strike out so the Thunder were down to their last out. Dawson Rondorf would single to put runners on the corners with 2 outs. Dawson would steal 2nd on the first pitch as Plainview was no way going to throw down with the tying run on 3rd. So the tying and winning runs were in scoring position with 2 outs and up was Lucas Karls trying to make up for his throwing error in the top of the inning and boy did he ever. Lucas ripped a walk off 2 RBI single to left center sending the Thunder team into a frenzy. What a finish to a championship game. Lucas Karls had ice in his veins and to top it off, his dad was coaching first and lifted him up over his head in celebration. What a great moment!! This team showed great poise all day. They had to win 3 games in succession to win it and they did just that. Evan Roell caught all 3 games and every single inning in those games. Cal Karnitz pitched the last 4 innings only allowing 1 run and pitched awesome all weekend. This team was not going home without a championship. The Thunder coaching staff was very proud of the effort these boys gave in some warm weather with not much of a break in between games. Every single kid contributed in this 6 game tournament and it takes every kids best effort to pull it off and that's what we got. These kids will never forget this tournament and I know one special kid definetly will not.  LUUUUUUUUCAS KARLS will have this memory forever!

      The 5th grade Thunder would also like to congratulate the 7th grade Thunder who also took home the Championship making West Bend very well represented. This was an unbelievable complex, 8 all turf fields. A great experience for our kids to play on these fields and they made the very best of it. Way to go Thunder Nation!!!!