The Manteca Heat played together as a team for over 4 years.  After capping off our run with a 3rd place finish in Cooperstown, the Heat have taken a Hiatus.  Many of the kids are playing football, while the others are involved in High School Sports.  You will find many of the Heat players in the local newspaper EVERY week.  Its the greatest thing about Manteca; We've watched many of these kids (besides our own of course) grow from the point they began playing organized sports.  We get to continue to do so. 

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---The Cooperstown Experience---

July 21st, 2006:
We're off to Cooperstown!!!  The Manteca Heat have worked hard fundraising with one goal in mind.  Get us to Cooperstown; Home of the Baseball Hall of Fame!!!  We have accomplished our goal and are set to play at Cooperstown Baseball World  (http://www.cooperstownbaseballworld.com) .  The Tournament started Sunday July 22nd.  We played teams from all over the United States, as well as Canada.  This was an experience the players looked forward to for more than a year.    At Cooperstown Baseball World, we played on College Fields, stayed in College Dorms, and played in the Uniform Representing Manteca, CA.  Don't be stuck on Dreamspark.  The Cooperstown experience does not end at 12. 
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The Heat were running on all cylinders!!!  They hit, stole, pitched well and played solid "D". 

Day 1:  The Heat started 2-0 in Pool Play.  Scoring 19 runs while only allowing 3.  Game 1 vs. (IL) Heat, the (CA) Heat won 9-0.  In Game 2 vs. (GA) Thundersticks, the Heat won 10-3. 

Day 2:  Monday proved to be a bit more of a struggle.  The Heat though, was up for the challenge.  In game 1, the Heat played the Devil Rays from New Jersey Shores.  It was an offensive battle from the beginning, and the Heat had to struggle back, but they pulled out an 8-6 win.  Game Two on Monday pitted us against a team that could just plain hit.  No matter who was on the mound, they hit them.  But in the bottom of the last inning, down two runs, the Heat put together a rally that was capped by a two run game winning double by CJ Rivas.  The Heat are now 4-0 in pool play with a strong chance of taking the #1 or 2 seed.  Everything to this point has been fought for and earned!

Day 3:  Our bats quitted a bit today.  It took us until the final inning to spark some real offense, but we came up one run short.  Losing 8-7, we dropped to the #2 seed.  The Heat have learned that seeding is only part of the process.  Tomorrow, we get a first round bye, and then play the winner of the seed 7 vs. 10.  Wish us luck.  We play at 1pm eastern time.

Day 4:  This was definitely our day.  We pounded out 11 runs in 4 innings to mercy the Hoffman Estates Heat.  Robbie Wise's in-the-park standup Homerun was one of the highlights of the day.  Strong pitching, strong defense, strong hitting, and smart baserunning made it no match for the H.E. Heat.  The Manteca Heat move to the Semi-Finals Thursday at 8 am eastern time.  We will be playing the North Carolina Storm.

Day 5:  5 Days of a College Dorm life, put together with 5 days of baseball proved to be too much.  Seems the College Dorm Life won out.  With an 8am game time, the Heat failed to wake up and found themselves down by 7 after the first inning.  They only gave up one more run in the 2nd, but found it too much to overcome.  We moved on to the consolidation bracket, beating the Canadian team 13-9 to finish the tournament in 3rd place.  All and all, this has been an experience that these players will have with them for the rest of their lives.

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We sincerely appreciate all that contributed towards our goal.  Baseball is a way of life for us, and this will be a life learning experience for these boys.  We would like to also thank the following local companies for their support.  Please realize that these companies have truly made an effort to support our local sports:

Dairy Queen;  Franks Union 76 (Airport & Yosemite);  ProTouch Automotive;  California Kids Day Care;  Mountain Mikes;  Timmins Construction (Utah);  Air Treatment Corp;  Colletti Marketing

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