Auburn Cubs Baseball Club: Cubs News

The Next Generation of Auburn Cubs Baseball have so far played 5 tourneys with two to go in the season. The 9U Cubs were finally assembled right after Memorial Day weekend and been very busy since.

 First the Cubs stayed home to play in Auburn at the Early Summer Classic at Sunset and GSA. Cubs came outta of the gates hot and played hard until the last out, beating the Puyallup Raptors 18-0. The Cubbies went 3-1 in pool play with there only loss coming to Black Hills Green 6-5. Cubbies Won their Semi Final game earning a spot to play in the champonship. They lost a tough game 12-6 to the Black Hills green to take 2nd place in their first tourney of the year and only having two practices to prepare!!

Next tourney brought them to the 4th of July Blast at Sprinker. Cubbies Won there pool going 3-0. They played a tough game against the South End Hurricanes in the quarter finals winning 4-3 with 0-2 count and 2 outs and 2 on in the top of sixth Brandon Ivanich ripped a bases clearing triple to take the lead 4-3. Brandon Then came through to close out the sixth and helped the Cubbies earn their second straight semi final appearance. Cubs lost to a very good FW Knights club that came out to hit the ball!! With great pitching from James Spicklemier who at one point through 22 straight strikes to start a game and getting 25 k's in 10 innings pitched for the tourney the Cubs took 3rd place.

 Third Tourney brought us to Silverrdale,Wa for the Pete Ross Classic. The weather shortened much of the tournament as most games were only 2-3 innings long. The boys played their first lead off games ever and played some very close games, boys went 0-4 in Silverdale.

Fourth Tourney brought the Summer Knights Tourney in Federal Way. Boys went 3-1 in pool play with their only loss coming in first game of the tournament to Gig Harbor Extreme 7-5. Boys went on to be a 5 seed in bracket play and play in City Navy from Seattle and time got the better end of the boys losing 6-4 in the quarter finals.

 Fifth tourney Cubs travelled to Moses Lake to play in the Smash and Splash tournament. Boys came out won their pool going 3-0 and earning a spot in the semi finals. Boys played a great game against their neighbors from Enumclaw, Enumclaw Titans. Boys lost on a sac fly to shallow Center scoring the runner from third at a close call at home, 5-4. Boys finished 4th out of 20 9u teams from across the Northwest.

This group of players and families are very close knit group and it shows on and off the field. So thank you players for the tough play and to never give up, THAT IS CUBS BASEBALL!!! THANK YOU FAMILIES FOR MAKING THIS A GREAT SEASON!!!

What a weekend for the 11U Cubs!  The 11U Cubbies went to the hot desert of Moses Lake and WON THEIR THIRD CHAMPIONSHIP in as many tournaments!

The Cubs entered the Smash and Splash Tournament in Moses Lake expecting to face some tough teams in the HOT DESERT SUN.  It didn't dissapoint with temps in the high 80's and 90's at game times.  And the Cubbies were up for the challenge.  In the first game Saturday at 9am, we faced the tough Wenatchee White Sox team and the combination pitching of Alex Yu and Shane Buchanan kept the Sox hitters off balance (and LOW Pitch Count!).  With Dallon Bennett and Alex Sugi leading the one-two punch at the top of the order, the Cubs jumped ahead 2-0 and cruised to 5-1 win.  Hayden B closed the game to secure the win!

In the second game Saturday at 1pm, we faced the Cayotes from Yakima.  With Dylan Ostler's fine pitching and Dyson Johnson slamming the door closed on the Cayotes hitters, the Cubs cruised to a 14-3 win (highlighted by Alex Yu's 3-3 w/ 2RBI and Tanner George's 2-2 w/ 2RBI and 2 run scored performances).

The quick work by the Cubs in the 2nd game allowed us about 2 hours of break before the next game.  With temps now reaching 90's, it was time to go back to the hotel to cool off. 

Back to the field for the 5pm game against the Pasco Storm (WE WERE THE ONLY TEAM SATURDAY TO PLAY 3 GAMES!!!  ONE TEAM, THE DIRT DAWGS ONLY PLAYED ONE GAME SATURDAY!).  Well, the heat got to the boys and they had a really hard time in this game.  The boys fought valiantly and stayed close all game long, but in the end, lost to the Storm 6-4.  Still, Jordan Shimizu, Tanner George, and Brian Mattson had nice hits...but it just wasn't enough to overcome the heat and fatigue and good Pasco pitching.

It was time to re-group, enjoy some pool time, get good sleep and get ready for Sunday!  Luckily, our first game was not until 1pm so all the kids got good rest.

Our first game Sunday was the much anticipated rematch against the Yakima Valley Dirt Dawgs and pay back time for the early season 9-8 loss back in April (Yakima) tournament.  Again, lead by the top of the order combo of Dallon, Alex S. and Alex Y going 6-8 with 7 runs scored and Smash and Bash performance by Hayden B....along with another fantastic pitching combo of Alex Y and Shane B (combined 85 pitches total for 6 innings), the Cubs took it to the Dirt Dawgs 9-2.  Can't forget to mention the fine defensive catch by Jake Williams in RF and clutch 2 out base hit by Liam C!!

On to the Championship game as #1 Seed in our Pool.  We were to face the Host Team Moses Lake Rebels.  Not knowing much about this team, the coaching staff stuck to their guns and went with what has been working....the 1-2 combo of Alex Y and Shane B again.  And again, they were fantastic.  With overpowering fastball and deadly breaking ball, Alex Yu no hit the Rebels for the first 3 innings (facing the minimum 9 hitters)....thanks to some fantastic defensive plays by Liam, Jake, and Dallon.  Meanwhile, we managed to score 1 run in each of the first three innings, and an insurance run in the sixth inning thanks to small ball.  Shane relieved Alex and continued the strong pitching performance (though couple of errors in the 6th inning made the game closer then it really was)  and the three-peat was complete!  Final score 4-2. 

Kids fought valiantly in this desert heat and came away Champions again!  Fantastic job boys!!!

Cubs 11U team took home the Championship again in Auburn's Mid-Summer Bash. 

 It all started Friday night with a night cap (8pm start) against the Rawlings Rebels.  The Cubbies took an early lead 8-0 in the first two innings and went on to win 8-1.  Superb pitching by Alex Yu, Dyson Johnson, and Jordan Shimizu held the free-swinging Rebels lineup to just 4 hits, while recording 10K's. 

Saturday brought some rain in the morning but by the afternoon, the fields were in good condition and the kids were ready to go!  Facing off against the Tigers from Eastlake, they again jumped out to an early lead 7-0 and never looked back.  They recorded 12 hits in the game lead by 2-3 performances by Alex Sugi and Dylan Ostler..... and 3-3 performance by Alex Yu.  The pitching trio of Dylan Ostler, Jordan Shimizu, and Liam Conner held the Tigers to just 4 runs while only giving up 4 hits.  Final Score 8-4

The Second game (third of the pool play) became an instant classic.  Facing the tough Puyallup RiverDogs team.  The RiverDogs jumped to an early 2-0 lead but the Cubbies battled back to take the 3-2 lead in the 2nd inning.  However the RiverDogs tied the game 3-3 in the third.  Shane Buchanan then came in and pitched scoreless 4th and 5th while striking out 3 of the 6 batters he faced.  Meanwhile, the offense squeaked across one more run in the 4th inning to take the 4-3 lead into the top 6th.  The RiverDogs fought back and pushed across the tying run in the top of 6th and shut down the Cubbies in bottom of the 6th.  On to extra inning.  Alex Yu came in and continued his fine pitching by going 1, 2, 3 in the top of 7th.  In bottom of 7th, with two outs....Brian Mattson lined a single, Dallon Bennett followed with a line drive single.  With runner on 1st and 2nd and two outs, Alex Sugi came through with a single up the middle to score Brian from 2nd for a walk-off win.  Great job!!

Cubbies faced the tough Kent All-Star team Sunday morning for their last pool play game.  They faced the red hot bats of Kent and couldn't muster much hitting of their own.  The boys just didn't have it this morning and got beat 18-0!!

No time to panic.  Cubbies went into Bracket play Semi-Finals as the #2 Seed and faced off against the #3 Seed RiverDogs.  This time, the Cubbies took it to RiverDogs and with fine pitching by Alex Yu and Shane Buchanan, (combined to strike out 11 batters while walking zero) and fine defensive plays by Alex Sugi, Jake Williams, Tanner George, and Bryce, the Cubbies won 7-1. 

For the Finals, it was time to face the Kent All-Stars again (who knocked off the Rebels).  The cubbies took an early 1-0 lead in the first and managed to keep the Kent team scoreless for 2 innings....but in the 3rd inning, Kent pushed across 2 runs against Alex Yu.  We had our chances but came up zeros in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th inning due to the fine pitching of Shane Nagel and Jordan Wright.  Kent pushed across one more run in the bottom of the 5th inning off Shane Buchanan thanks to the RBI fly ball to deep center by Cade Harris.  Down 3-1 going into the top of 6th...we still had a fighting chance but it was gonna take a lot of heart and determination to get it done! 

Dyson Johnson started the inning with a single off Jordan.  Fielders choice (Dylan Ostler) and one out later, Tanner George singled and Shane Buchanan walked on a 10 pitch at bat, loading the bases for Kent native Jordan Shimizu.  Redemption time!  With full count, he lined a single just inside the third base line scoring both Dylan and Tanner tying the score 3-3!  Another fielders choice (2nd out) later by Jake Williams and a walk by Brian Mattson loaded the bases for Alex Sugi.  On a 1-2 count, he took one for the team in the leg, which pushed across the eventual game winning run (really HP ended up being the winning run??).  We'll take it!  Another walk, single, and a double later, the score was 8-3 and it was party time!!  Shane closed the door in the bottom of 6th and the Cubs are the Champions for the 2nd weekend in a row!

Great job boys!!

Congratulations to the 11U Cubs for winning the Pete Ross Classic

The team got together for their first tournament since the Little League season ended.  The coaches and the players wanted to build upon the 3-1 record during the Spokane Bash tournament over Memorial Day Weekend.

Just like the last tournament, the kids brought their bats!  Won the first game against Peninsula Predators 10-0.  The boys stumbled in their next game and lost to the Olympia Cubs 7-4 but came right back and pounced on the Silverdale Timberhawks 11-1.  On Sunday, being the #2 Seed, we faced off against the host Silverdale Sluggers.  While it was a pitching duel for 3 innings, the Cubbies finally broke it open in the bottom 4 to go up 8-2 and that became the final score.  On to Championship game. 

The Olympia Cubs upset the Spartans SBC so it was a rematch of Saturday.  The 1-2 punch of Alex Yu and Shane Buchanan held the good hitting Olympia team to just 3 runs and 5 hits through 6 innings.  Some superb defense by Alex Sugi, Dyson Johnson, Cameron Naden, Jake Williams, Dallon Bennett, and Alex Yu to support the pitchers!  Can't forget the great performance by Dylan Ostler catching.  He was blocking balls in the dirt left and right!  Way to work kid!  Clutch hitting and aggressive baserunning netted 6 runs for the Cubbies.  Final score 6-3 Auburn Cubs!

After a couple of 2nd place finishes in 2010, the 11U Cubs brought home the Championship!  Great job boys!!

Cubs defeated the Klouters in fine fashion 10-0 last Monday to bring home 1st place.

9U Cubs season ended last weekend where it began under very similar conditions over Memorial Day Weekend, overcast and drizzling.  Fortunately, the drizzle gave way and we had some sunshine for our Saturday and Sunday games.  We began bright and early Saturday morning facing the Everett Falcons.  They came to play and gave us a run but we pulled out a 9-5 win.   

2^nd game had us playing the tough Everett Klouters, who remembered us all too well from our last go around over Memorial Day weekend.  We struggled to get our bats going and played on our heels for the early part of the game.  We rallied, but not enough to overcome the runs we had spotted them earlier and was on the losing end of a 9-5 score.   

Third and final pool game had us taking on a very tough Everett Knockouts team on Sunday.  We ended the game ahead 8-7 in an old-fashion pickle run down between first and second.   First round of elimination play had us facing the hot Pasco Fury team.  We played them tough all the way to the end by keeping our focus and taking it one out at a time, eventually pulling out a 6-5 win.  It was a tough game that could have gone either way, we were very happy to be playing in the final. 

So the final was set, we were facing the Klouters again.  We had played them three times over the last two years and had never been happy with the outcome.  Our boys went to bed Sunday night thinking about payback!!  We knew our work was cut out for us.   

We showed up Monday morning on a cloudy day that was threatening rain.  The only thing that fell were the Klouters, who tried to deliver a knock-out punch, but could not stop the still smoking hot Cub's bats and dealing pitching.  We finished the game in 5 innings with 10 to 0 win!!  What a way to finish the season with an emphatic blowout win!!  

We ended our season the way many teams dream of.  We played nearly flawless baseball throwing strikes and not giving away runs or hits.  Our fielding was sharp and our hitting was relentless.  At the end of the day, we finished ahead of some of the finest teams in the northwest.   

Great job Cubs!!!  We are looking forward to more success in 2011!

Couldn't resist putting this video on.  In-between the semi-final and championship game, kids were just goofing off and having fun.  These kids are throwing with their "off" arm.  =)

Click on link for youtube version with music.  Click on the .mov icon below for version without music.