NL Rebels Red 11U take 2nd Place in Oak Lawn Tourney
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The New Lenox Rebels Red 11U team took 2nd place out of 12 teams in the Oak Lawn Charger Challenge Tournament. The boys posted a 4-2 overall record for the weekend including winning 3 straight games on Sunday in single-elimination format to make it to the Championship Game. The Championship was a hard fought game all the way to the end with the Rebels clinging to a 2-1 lead late in the game. But the top seeded Troy Titans were able to battle back in the end to edge the Rebels out 5-2.
Manager Tom Strilko said the boys gave everything they had on Sunday beating some high quality competition to make it to the final game. Every boy on the team had at least 1 hit and 1 run batted in. Leading the team for the weekend in hits were Mark Kexel and Dylan Strilko with 8 each, including 3 doubles for Dylan. The Big Bopper Glenn Jackson had 6 hits and drove in a ‘Monster’ 8 runs for the weekend. Speedster Alex Rudzinski contributed 6 hits including a key hit in the quarterfinals. Closing Pitcher Brian Croix contributed both on the mound, finishing out both the quarterfinal and semi-final games, as well as at the plate with 7 hits including a triple. Ace pitcher Cody Erikson logged 8 strong innings for the tourney to keep the Rebels advancing. Catching duties for the 6 games were handled by the two ‘backstops’ Chase Jankowski and Vinnie Landy. Timely hitting by Jack DuVall and Michael Yario helped to round out the team’s weekend effort.