National Champions: Glenview Blaze 12U Wins Title In Cooperstown

GLENVIEW, IL — Many young players dream of doing big enough things on the baseball field to make it to Cooperstown some day. For Glenview Blaze 12U, the team played like Hall of Famers recently during the national championship tournament at the prestigious Cooperstown Dreams Park in New York.

Cooperstown, home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, was the setting for the team's first national championship on July 28. The squad came from behind by putting up five runs in the sixth inning of an 11-10 victory over the Burlingame Panthers, from California.

Announcers called it the best championship game they have seen in the last 10 years.

Prior to the single elimination playoff bracket, the Blaze earned a No. 3 seed by compiling a 6-1 pool play record by beating teams from Maryland, Hawaii, California and New York. The Blaze won three back-to-back playoff games to make it to the championship game.

In the championship game, the Blaze was one strike away from closing out the game in the top of the sixth inning when Burlingame put up five runs, highlighted by a grand slam to put Burlingame up by four going into the bottom of the sixth.

In a storybook finish, the Blaze fought back and scored five runs in the bottom of the sixth with a three-run home run, a solo home run, a triple and an infield hit to win the game.

The team was managed in the tournament by TJ McManus, coaches Tommy Wang and Nate
Klinge. The team was managed during the season by Mario Tursi and Ryan Haff. The players on
the team include Mark Atwood, Sam Christos, Braden Ferrick, Jack Gonzalez, Gavin Johnson,
Miles Klinge, Charlie Krauss, Thomas McNally, Nicholas Quintas, Henry Schott, Sam Selhorst,
Luke Wirtschoreck and Jonas Wang.

The Cooperstown National Championship was the third tournament championship for the Blaze
12U team this season.