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| Left: R. Bain, B. Politte, T. Blankenship, J. Bandy, T. Meier, M. Green, D. Bain, T. Brengle |
Blazers Represented Well at SLABA Banquet The Blazers were well represented at the recent SLABA MVP banquet. Each year the team MVP's are invited
to a league banquet where awards are handed out for accomplishments by individuals and teams from the summer. This year Brady
Politte, Josh Bandy, and Trey Meier received MVP awards for being elected by their own teams. Along with the team MVP's, Tylar
Blankenship received the SLABA 16U League Pitcher of the Year award. Coach Matt Green, 16U head coach, received the Jim Medlock
award for the SLABA 16U Coach of the Year. Pitcher of the Year and Coach of the Year is voted on by the coaches from that
age group and league. Congratulations to all of the Blazers.
Varsity
- Trey Meier- Trey had an outstanding year for the Varsity Blazers. A new addition to the Blazer progam this year, Trey really
jumped in and anchored the lineup for the varsity this year. Trey ended the season with 140 plate appearances and 118 atbats.
In those 118 atbats Trey hit .339 with a .542 slugging percentage. One trait that Trey brings to the plate is his versatility.
Trey can lay down a bunt or knock the ball out of the park. Hitting anywhere from the 2 to the 5 spot in the lineup he was
able to contribute 40 hits that broke down to 23 singles, 13 doubles, 1 triple, and 3 homeruns. Trey led the team in average,
slugging, plate appearances, runs, hits, doubles, and homeruns. Trey not only brought his stick to the park, but brought a
great attitude and willingness to get better every day. The Blazers look forward to an anchore presentation next year for
Trey.
16U - Josh Bandy - Josh had a super summer for the 16U Blazers both on the mound and at the plate. At the plate Josh
had a gaudy .554 average in 83 atbats. Along with the great average Josh had a .642 on base percentage, .651 slugging, 39
singles, 6 doubles, 1 triple, and 26 RBI's. One of the most amazing stats that Josh had this summer was in 83 atbats he only
had one strikeout. On the mound Josh posted a 3-1 record with 1 save and a 3.11 ERA. In 27 innings pitched Josh had 27
strikeouts and a whip of 1.07, while the opposing hitters hit a weak .208 against him.
15U - Brady Politte - Brady had a great freshman campaign for the 15U Blazers. Brady
brought his bat to the park where ever the Blazers played, and the numbers that Brady put up support that. In 80 atbats
the frosh was able to post a .488 average, .738 slugging, 12 doubles, 4 triples, and 32 RBI's. Brady was an RBI machine for
the the 15U Blazers and was a guy that that team counted on to knock in the big runs in the right situation.
16U SLABA League Champions!!! The 16U Blazers finished with a 13-3 league record and clinched the overall
league championship. The next step for the Blazers will be a NABF World Series appearance in Michigan starting on Thursday,
July 22nd. Congrats to Coach Green, Coach Brengle, and the players on such a great season. Good luck in Michigan!
Varsity Reaches Semi's in Miami of Ohio The varsity traveled to Miami University
of Ohio to participate in an exposure tournament. The original schedule had the Blazers slated to play one game each day,
but because of a lot of rain the Blazers found themselves with 3 games on Saturday. The first game started at 9am and the
last game of the day started at 9:30pm. The varsity was able to pull off 3 wins on the day to advance to the semi finals of
the tournament. The Blazers were the only team in the 18U division to finish with a perfect pool record. After finishing the
final game on Saturday at 11:30pm, the team had to turn around and play the semi final game at 9:00am the next morning. On
Saturday the Blazers got complete game wins from Troy Henning and Tyler Noll, with Jake Peppers and Nate Faulstich combining
to get the win in the other game. In the semi final game the Blazers lost a close 3-2 ball game to a team from Columbus, Ohio.
This is the second weekend in a row that the Varsity Blazers have gone 3-1 in a tournament.
Blazers 14U Tryout for Summer
2011 On August 7th, 2010 the
Blazers 14U team will be holding tryouts at Fox High School beginning at 9 AM. If you are interested in trying out for the
team please contact Jim Schmitt at 314-807-1294 or jim.schmitt@hughes.net.
Tournament Champions! Congratulations
to the 16U Blazers who won their tournament in Kansas City this past weekend. The Blazers went through the weekend with a
6-0 record. The pitching was very good for the JV Blazers who got wins from Tylar Blankenship, Brett Pitts, Mark Rodgers,
Josh Bandy, Otto, Schmidt, and Nick Carlton. Along with the pitching the players also brought some hot bats to Kansas. The
team was able to hit 7 HR on the weekend with Mark Rodgers and Jordan Valentine each hitting one, Dan Braniecki hit a pair,
and Jake Bell hit 3 on the weekend. As the Blazers return to St. Louis they come back with an overall record of 12-5. The
16U will be in action next on Tuesday when they pay a visit to the St. Louis Tigers at Heman Park.
Stickyfan.com
for Fundraising? The Blazer organization is
happy to announce a cool way for fans to support the Blazers, and help the organization fundraise at the same time. A company
named Stickyfan is now offering products specifically designed for the JC Blazers and its fans. All you have to do is visit
the link at the bottom of this article and you can start placing your order for decals and various items. The Blazers will
receive a portion of each purchase made, and will directly place the money into the Blazer account. Please visit the site
and take a look at the items developed just for the Blazers. Thank you.
Our Pride and Spirit Team Store
Colby White Named Post-Dispatch
Scholar Athlete for 2009 Varsity Blazer Colby White
will be honored at the May 6th St. Louis Cardinals baseball game as a 2009 Post-Dispatch Scholar Athlete. Colby has earned
a 4.3 GPA through his high school career at Seckman High while participating in basketball, baseball, and track. Colby
is the epitome of what a student-athlete is all about. The Blazers want to congratulate Colby on this honor and wish him luck
after his high school career. Colby's parents are Jackie and Loretta White.
Omaha, NE Tourny Leads 18's
Into Important League
Stretch On
June 17-20 the Varsity Blazers participated in the “Battle of Omaha” tournament. The tournament took place during
the 2009 College World Series. The players were able to attend the elimination games between Arizona State and North Carolina
and the Texas Arizona State. On the field the Blazers went 2-1 in their pool, but were not able to advance
out of the pool play round. The Blazers started off the tournament with a 13-5 win over a legion team from Lincoln, NE. The
Blazers were actually trailing going into the bottom of the 4th before they put a 4 spot on the board to take the
lead to not look back. The game was highlighted by a Brian Burwell’s second homerun of the year, which was estimated
to travel over 425 ft. In the second game of the tournament the Blazers lost a heart breaker to the eventual pool winner Gretna
Legion in 9 innings 4-2. Kyle Tipton hit his first homerun of the year to get the Blazers on the board in the 5th
inning. Brian Burwell pitched 7 innings allowing 2 unearned runs and striking out 13 batters in a very dominating performance.
The final game of the pool took place shortly after the heartbreaker to Gretna, and the Blazer lineup took out their anger
in a big way. Colby White got the scoring going with a homerun, and from there the rest of the team joined in to beat the
Castle View, CO team. Austin Burgert allowed only 2 hits in four innings to earn a win on the getaway game. The
Blazers come back to St. Louis for an extended time after traveling for the past two weekends. Tuesday, June 23rd
the Jeffco Barnstormers are the opponent in an important league game.
Blazers Organization Announces
New Plan The Jefferson County Blazers are excited to announce a new plan of action.
As the times change in the area of amateur baseball, the Blazers have decided that this is a great time to make adjustments
to the way they do things. The Blazers have decided to make these changes based on the needs of their players. The overall
goal of the Jefferson County Blazers program is to play the best competition possible. With going out of town to find the
best competition, the Blazers staff feels that each player will get a lot of exposure to college coaches and also raise the
level of their play. The first change that will be implemented is the date of tryouts. Tryouts for the summer of 2009 15U,
16U, and 18U teams will be held on October 5, 2008. Leading up to October 5th the Blazers will hold workouts on
Sundays starting August 17th at 5:00 p.m. open to any player who is interested in playing for the Blazers in the summer of
2009. Another adjustment that the players and coaches are excited about is the schedule. In summers past each age level would
attend 2 out of town tournaments, and then depending on how they placed in league they could attend a 3rd out of town World
Series. For summer 2009, the Blazers plan to send each age level out of town at least 4 times. At the varsity level the blazers
plan to keep the Memphis Exposure Weekend and the Omaha, NE trip during the College World Series. The varsity is planning
on attending an exposure tournament on the campus of a division 1 school, and then end the season at a World Series or another
exposure tournament. Along with traveling out of town, the Blazers will continue to play league games, and also hope to schedule
teams from Illinois to round out the schedule. The 15U and 16U teams schedule will look similar to the varsity. For more information
about the Blazers please contact them at blazercoach@hotmail.com .
From One MVP to Another At the recent SLABA banquet to celebrate the accomplishments of the year, Bobby Lombard
was named the 18U league MVP. Bobby is the third Blazer in a row to win this award. The MVP award is named after former Ellisville
Redbird Ryan Howard. Ryan Howard played for the Ellisville Redbirds before heading to Missouri State, and eventually he went
on to win the 2006 National League MVP with the Philadelphia Phillies. With Ryan on the road, Howard's parents were
at the banquet to present the award to Bobby. This wasn't just another presentation though, and what happened next dropped
the jaws of all parents and players in the room. With Bobby standing at the podium to accept the award, Mr. Howard struggled
to speak to the person on the other end of the phone. The other person was Ryan Howard himself. On a road trip in New York
for a series with the mets, Ryan Howard spoke to Bobby through phone conversation to congratulate Bobby on his accomplishment.
Ryan Howard said, "Congratulations Bobby on a great year, and keep up the hard work and you will continue to be successful."
Lombard was taken back by the whole situation to say the least. Lombard said,"I saw the pitcher of the year get
an autographed ball from Kyle McClellen, and I was thinking that would be awesome to get that from Mr. Howard. I wasn't
sure what to think when Mr. Howard was fumbling with his phone, and then I heard him say are you there Ryan, and I was like
you got to be kidding. I will never forget that moment." ter content here
World Series Wraps Up Varsity Season The varsity Blazers went 2-2 in their pool at the NABF World Series
in Jackson, MS. The fifteen team world series began on July 31st and ran through August 3rd. The Blazers started pool play
off on the right foot when they beat Lynnhaven, VA by the score of 15-6. Andrew Scott's performance was business as usual
as he through another complete game and received his eighth win of the season. Colby White lead the game off with a triple,
and the rest of the line-up followed the lead as the runs kept on coming. In game 2, the Blazers lost 6-0 to TNL Sports out
of the state of Georgia. As good as the offense was in game 1, the game 2 performance was exactly the opposite. The Blazers
could only manage one hit off TNL's lefty on the mound, and this win for TNL would help them to a 4-0 pool record(only
team in tournament to be perfect in pool play). Game 3 for the Blazers emphasized on the "World" part of world series.
The Blazers were challenged from Team Ontario based out of Ontario, Canada. The game started at 9:30 a.m., but was interrupted
by a 2 1/2 hour rain delay. After play resumed, Chad Faulstich gave the Blazers an outstanding effort on the mound. Chad went
6 1/3 innings, and then Chris Beil came in to receive the save in a 5-4 victory. Chris Beil also added 2 hits that helped
propel the Blazers offensively. Game 4, the final game of the pool, was a nail biter all the way down to the end. The Blazers
got an outstanding performance on the mound from Austin Burgert who went all 7 innings for the Blazers. Unfortunately the
Blazers could not generate a run as they were shutout by the Baytown Knights of Texas by the score of 1-0. At the end of a
long two days of baseball, the players, coaches, and families had to play the waiting game to see if they would advance out
of their pool. Finally at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday they received the bad news that their season had come to an end. The Blazers
were the only 3rd place pool team not to go on because of runs allowed. All and all the Blazers could have played better,
but the best part of the tournament is the exposure and competition levels the tournament brought. With teams in the World
Series from Souther California to Canada to New York, the tournament exposed the Blazers to a world of baseball. With college
coaches from Mississippi State, Vanderbilt, Austin Peay, and many others coming around to evaluate Blazer players. The weekend
put a great cap onto an outstanding season for the varsity Blazers squad.
Varsity Blazers Win SLABA Crown The Jefferson County Blazers varsity team swept the South-West Stars in a best of three
series to win the SLABA League Championship. Both teams got to the championship series by winning their respective divisions
during the regular season. In game one of the series the Blazers defeated the Stars 9-3 and were able to ruin the perfect
season for SLABA League Pitcher of the Year Tyler Bower. Game two of the series saw the Blazers go to town with the bats
as they scored a total of 11 runs to the Stars 1. Chad Faulstich and Andrew Scott through back-to-back complete games
to help their team to the SLABA League Championship. Both pitchers proved why they are 1A and 1B on the Blazer's pitching
staff by utilizing their pitching arsenal to keep the Star's hitters off balance. On the offensive side, league
MVP Bobby Lombard continued his hitting ways by going the opposite way for a clutch double in game two
to give the Blazers the lead for good. In game one Colby White cracked a long homerun to break the game open for the Blazer
squad. Both extra base hits were the back breaking blows to Tony McNabb's Stars squad. The Blazers wrap up their
league season with an overall record of 22-1, and set a SLABA league record in wins during a season. Blazer players and coaches
can't celebrate for long, as they will take off on Wednesday, July 30th for the NABF World Series in Jacksonville, MS.
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