Westfield Blue Lives the Dream at Cooperstown

Westfield Blue just returned from perhaps the greatest baseball experience any 12 year old can have – a week at Cooperstown Dreams Park (www.cooperstowndreampark.com) where they competed with 103 other teams from as far away as California, Texas and Florida. The caliber of play was the highest we’ve seen as many of the teams play year round and recruit players from a large geographic area. Despite this, WB more than held its own, finishing with a 4-4 record and being seeded 56th out of 104 teams. For the tournament, WB went by the name the “Westfield Warriors” and had perhaps the coolest pin of any team there:







After the opening ceremonies on Sunday morning, skills competitions were held. Steven Barmakian represented WB in the King of Swat where the winner is determined by who hits the most Home Runs. Parker Hess participated in the Golden Arm contest where throws are made from center field to a target at home plate. Owen Murray ran in the Road Runner competition where the winner has the fasted time running around all four bases.. All of the boys performed admirably and Owen nearly made it into the top 6.

The rest of the team competed in the Around the Horn challenge where the ball is thrown from position to position and the team with the lowest (fastest) time wins. Despite only practicing this once or twice, WB finished with a time that was only a few seconds longer than the winner.

                        WB goes Around the Horn

Next the actual games began. WB played 2 games per day through Tuesday as follows. Before each game, the team did the Pre-Game Warriors Chant:



Sun 6/27
1:45pm
WB defeated the Lake Bluff Bobcats from Illinois 5-3. Pitchers were Rowan and Justin.

7pm
WB defeated the  Burnsville Thunder from Minnesota 16-8. Tyler and Owen Murray were the pitchers and Parker hit a 3 run HR.

Mon 6/28
8:30
Team Linedrive from Michigan defeated WB 10-3. J.D and Parker handled the pitching. Steven hits his first HR.

1:45pm
The Virginia Aces defeated WB 10-7. Rowan, Tyler and Cameron shared the pitching. Steven hit his 2nd HR.


Tue 6/29       
1:45 pm   
The Temecula Valley Heat Baseball Club from California defeated WB 15-3. Pitching was handled by Parker . Note that this team was seeded #6 and would have finished higher had we not scored 3 runs off them.        

7pm
WB defeated the Kenston Bombers from Ohio 8-4. Pitchers were Rowan and Justin.    

At this point, the teams records were evaluated to determine seeding for the tournament games. WB received a bye for the first round with a seeding of 56.


Wed 6/30
12pm
WB defeated the Litchfield Arsenal from New Hampshire 18-6. JD and Cameron handled the pitching. Owen Murray hit a HR and Steven hit 2 HRs.     

3pm
The Virginia Thunder defeated WB 8-5 in a very close game thus eliminating them from the tournament. Parker and Justin pitched.