Spiked

Pool Play Game 2
Beechmont Sno-Ball Classic
Louisville Longhorns 1, Cincinnati Spikes 8

Picture a team that shows up to the ball field wearing matching ThermaBase team warm-up jackets and provides custom game balls that are branded with their own, full-color logo. Then imagine that you later find out that this outfit is part of a youth baseball organization that has its own stadium, replete with press box, two clubhouses, telephone-equipped dugouts, state-of-the-art electronic scoreboard and video board, professional sound system and permanent, chair-back seating. This team is not an invention of our minds, but rather the Louisville Longhorns’ opponent in their second pool-play game of the Beechmont Sno-Ball Classic baseball tournament this past Saturday afternoon.

Going into the game, the Longhorns sported a perfect 5-0 record, had run-ruled the opposition in three of those five games and had only given up a total of 5 runs. But they had not yet faced an adversary cut from quite the same cloth as the Cincinnati Spikes, a team who finished the 2010 season with a 47-1 record and who calls home the aforementioned major league-quality baseball facility.

As his teammates bat, center fielder Andrew Littlefield

watches from the dugout, hanging on every pitch.

For a short time, the Longhorns would be ahead in the game. With two outs and no one on in the top of the first inning, Matthew Higgins reached base safely after the fly ball that he lofted to left field was misplayed, and Number 10 was subsequently brought home by Andrew Arnold’s clutch RBI single. Although the Spikes would ultimately erase that one-run deficit, the game went the distance and Ryan Hamilton, Casey Simon, Trey Sweeney, Noah Baugher and Andrew Arnold, the lone Longhorn to record two base knocks in the contest, saw to it that the ’Horns notched a hit in each of the six frames.

Trey Sweeney en route to twirling a scoreless second inning.

Credit the Spikes—Longhorns batters reached base 13 different times in the game, but the Queen City nine only allowed one of that baker’s dozen to realize the satisfaction of touching home plate before returning to the dugout. Case in point: with runners at first and second with no out and the game still within reach, Nicholas Parrish lashed an 0-2 offering up the middle. But the Spikes are not your typical 11U competitive baseball club, and their shortstop turned what in most other games would have been a clear-cut, run-scoring hit into a 6-4-3 double play. Nevertheless, the Longhorns were not ready to roll over and play dead, as Ryan Hamilton drew a 2-out walk and immediately stole second base. With runners now at second and third, perched in scoring position, Bryce Elmore ripped a shot to straightaway center field, only to witness the Cincinnati ball hawk manning the central pasture make an over-the-shoulder grab to negate what could have been a 2-run extra base hit that would have gotten the Longhorns back into the game.

Casey Simon shows the umpire the ball after tagging out the runner

on a steal attempt annulled by catcher Andrew Arnold’s perfect peg.

The Louisville Longhorns may not be able to claim a home ballpark that has, according to the stadium’s own, dedicated web site, “a sand substructure that allows for optimal water drainage and softness,” nor can they don outerwear that is quite as snappy as that worn by their counterparts from up the Ohio River. But what they do have is talent. Serious talent that wins ballgames and that will win many more contests throughout the spring and summer.