Tinley Park Bobcats 14U Full-Time Travel Baseball Team Takes 1st Place in Jr. T-Bolts Summer Slam Tournament

Bottom Row: Tim Rickey, Nick Siedlecki, Kyle Ruppert, Ameer Aqel, Zach Weert, Aidan Strunka

Top Row: Coach Steve Ruppert, Joey Cronk, Nate Badon, Tom Schiller, Coach Tony Silvia, Joe Galante, Coach Jim Cronk, Cole Silvia, Coach Mike Strunka

The Tinley Park Bobcats 14U full-time travel baseball team took a 1st place win in the Jr. T-Bolts Summer Slam 2015 Tournament they hosted June 23rd through June 28th at Andrew High School in Tinley Park. The tournament consisted of 8 teams competing for the 1st place trophy--with the championship game between Tinley Park Bobcats and the Woodridge Bulldogs ending in a 5 to 2 victory for the Tinley Park Bobcats on Sunday evening.

The win was especially significant as this was the last tournament this team will play together after 4 seasons together. They have had a wonderful run starting as an 11U team in 2012 headed by Team Manager/Head Coach Tony Silvia, along with Coach Jim Cronk. Coach Mike Strunka joined the coaching staff in 2013, and Coach Steve Ruppert in 2014.

Coach Silvia stated it has been an honor to manage this wonderful group of boys, noting almost all of the boys have started with the team in 2012. The fact that all 11 boys will be attending Andrew High School in August together is one of Coach Silvia’s proudest achievements. In this day and age of travel baseball where kids play for teams in all different cities and towns, he loves that these boys are truly a ‘local team’ representing the name on their jersey and where they live--TINLEY PARK! They are good friends on and off the field and he looks forward to hopefully seeing them play together on the Andrew High School Baseball Team.