Good teams play their best baseball when it counts. Lansing's 14U Bobcats bounced back from a rough final week of the regular season to sweep two playoff games in the Quad County Babe Ruth 14U playoffs and capture the championship.
Lansing entered the playoffs as the number one seed. With former Ithaca College baseball player Tony Prudence at the helm as head coach, the Bobcats cruised to a 9-3-1 regular season record. But in the season's last week, the Bobcats dropped their final games to Dryden and Ithaca 14U squads—the very two teams Lansing would face in the playoffs.
Tuesday July 26: Lansing 12, Ithaca 3 Lansing starting pitcher Gil Richardson took the mound in the opening game, retiring Ithaca in order to set the tone. The Bobcats then roared to a big lead in the bottom-half of the first. Anthony Ruquet got the scoring started with a base hit to drive in two runs, then Brad Lehr followed with a booming triple that plated Ruquet. Later in the first set, Jake Brotherton knocked a single to score two more runs. After Lansing batted through the order, they had a controlling 9-0 lead.
Richardson (who would be credited as the winning pitcher) cruised through his first three innings before yielding to pitcher Anders Axelson, who came in to close out the game and notch six strikeouts in the final four innings.
A.J. Prudence reached base three times in the game, with a single and two runs scored. Ruquet finished 2-for-4 with a run scored and an
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RBI, while Lehr finished 2-for-4 with 2 RBI. Richardson reached base twice and scored two runs, while Brotherton reached base twice with 2 RBI and a run scored. Sean O'Callaghan went 2-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI, and Gabe Santiago went 1-for-3 with a run scored. Jack Collins finished with a double and a run scored, while Kobee Watts contributed an RBI and Connor Watts scored a run.
Wednesday July 27: Lansing 7, Dryden 3 In the championship game at the Lansing varsity field, it was Dryden that got out to a quick start in the top of the 1st with a couple hits that drove in a run. But staff ace and starting pitcher Sean O'Callaghan quickly settled into his groove, inducing a tapper back to the mound for the second out and then retiring the side on a caught-looking strikeout.