A group of young men got a leg up in their blossoming baseball careers, as Holmes County combined a talented group of 7 and 8 year olds from a variety of local teams to form the Holmes County 8U All-Star team. The All-Star team was selected from various Holmes County 8U teams, putting the best players together to represent Holmes County.

The team started the season playing in the Orrville Tournament July 7-10, losing to Wooster in the semifinals and finishing with a 3-3 record. Next, they played in Wooster at the Ralph Jones Memorial Tournament, where they showed great poise and determination.

Trailing to Norwayne the entire game in the semifinal of the tournament, Holmes County found itself losing by three in the top of the sixth, but the kids never lost hope and didn’t quit, and eventually emerged with a five-run victory as they poured on the offense in the final inning. Holmes County eventually finished runner-up to a very good Brunswick team, only losing by two runs in the Championship game.

“We had two great tournament runs and being the lower seeds going into the each single elimination tournaments, the kids had to fight their way through, falling a little short in both of the them,” said coach Benji Miller. “These kids were a great group of kids and we really had fun and enjoyed them. Our records didn’t show how good this team really was, but they played really well when it counted during both single elimination tournaments, knocking out the higher seeded teams along the way.”

Miller said that the experience was a great one for the kids, and the coaches would like to thank all kids for their hard work and to the parents who helped support the team. “Without their help these tournaments wouldn’t have been possible, and I also would like to thank all the local sponsors that helped us along to way,” said Miller.