ALL STAR BASEBALL ACADEMY TEAM OF THE WEEK: West Chester's 14U Team

This week’s Team of the Week award goes to the 14U Elite Team for their performance at the Bayside Bash at Sports at the Beach in Rehobeth Beach, Delaware. They went 2-3 for the weekend. After winning their first two games 7-4 and 11-1, they dropped their next two by scores of 5-4 and 12-8. This gave them the 15th seed for the championship bracket and netted them a first round game against the third seeded team. They played a tough extra-inning game that they would eventually lose 5-4, but they were able to hold the top-scoring team in the tournament to just 5 runs.

The 14U Elite Team averaged over 6 runs per game, with Michael Deitz leading the offensive outburst. He was 10 for 17 on the weekend with 7 extra-base hits and 10 RBI’s. Patrick Meenan was 6 for 12 with 3 RBI’s, while Tyler Kight and Sean Philips each contributed 5 hits to the potent offense. Accompanying the hitting attack was a display of situational baseball, which head coach Creighton Gubanich noted as the main reason for the team’s success on the weekend.

“The kids are starting to learn how important situational baseball is, such as moving the runner over so the guy behind him can drive him in. They’re not being selfish and trusting each other. They’re preventing extra bases by hitting the cut-off men, and really just playing fundamentally sound baseball. They’re starting to learn what baseball is really like.”

On the mound, the team got stellar performances from Charles Bears and Daniel Schupper. In 9 innings, Bears held his opponents to 4 runs, 3 of which were earned. He recorded 9 strikeouts while scattering 10 hits. Schupper was just as sharp, allowing only 2 earned runs in 6 innings of work. He limited his opponent, the team that scored the most runs in the tournament, to just 6 hits while racking up 5 strikeouts.

The 14U Elite Team is off until July 16th and 17th. They play at Ripken Baseball in Aberdeen, Maryland.