Blue Wave 16U put on their own fireworks display over the 4th of July week when they finished second on one of the top local showcase tournaments of the year.
Coach Rich Pohle and Coach Jon Garcia guided the team to a 6-0 record in the annual USA Premier Baseball Firecracker Classic, before losing the championship final 3-1 to the Colton Nighthawks Wednesday (7/8/10) at Ryan Lemmon Stadium in Irvine.
Blue Wave got off to a strong start by going 3-0 in Pool play in the week-long tournament that featured 32 of the top 16U teams in the region, including the Nighthawks, SoCal Bombers, Team Anderson, ABD, Playa Vista Orioles, San Diego Falcons, San Francisco Dons, San Diego Gamers, Encinitas Gamers, Bakersfield Braves, CBA Royals, SoCal Outlaws, Montebello Stars, and more.
They defeated the San Diego Falcons 7-2, beat Team APS 9-1, and slipped by the SoCal Bombers Black team 2-1 to earn the No. 1 seeding in their Pool and were tied at that point with the Bombers for the least amount of runs given up in Pool play at 4 runs each.
In the single-elimination playoff round, the Wave opened up with an 8-2 win over the San Diego Cyclones, then hammered the Los Oso Grizzlies 10-0 to make the semi-final round and a game against the SoCal Outlaws. The wave then defeated the Outlaws 6-2 to earn a shot at the Championship against the Nighthawks.
“We don’t like coming in second, but the boys played hard and beat some of the top teams around,” Coach Pohle said. “We feel we can beat anyone at any given time, so we look forward to more games and tournaments this summer.”
Members of the team playing in the tournament were: Zach Rivera, Tyler Cook, Grant Barring, Garrett Brown, Robert Solby, Nolan Broaddus, Mario Villa, Troy Baird, Gabe Macias, Brian Graves, Austin Smith, Seung-Jae Chi, Ryan Heerman, Jamie Vought, Dylan Mitchell, Andrew McCormack, James Kaprielian, A.J. Borland, and Chad Rieser.
In placing second, the team earned an automatic berth in the AABC Mickey Mantle (16U Division) Western Region Championship tournament July 22-26 in West Covina.