Submitted photos and press release:
The Pembroke Dragons 10U Baseball Team took to the tournament held in Nunda June 13-18 with one goal set in their mind and that goal was to win.
In order to achieve the goal they set for the GLOW All Stars tournament, it would take blood, sweat, tears and applying the hard work that they started in the gym many months ago.
To lead off the tournament Pembroke relied on the pitching of Brayden Lang, who struck out 23 batters in the first two rounds of play while going 9 for 10 at the plate with six singles, two doubles and a triple.
Along with the smart at bats and huge catches in the field by Gavin Liss, Ryan Zika, Austin Post and Trevor Rheinheimer the Dragons made their way to the semifinal game.
The game of the semifinals set for a tough task ahead facing a talented Nunda team and defeating them in extra innings.
The semifinals round was led by explosive hitting and base running by Owen Schultz. Owen sparked the Dragons when they needed it most with a massive double, clearing the bases and setting up the Dragons for the comeback that they needed.
In the bottom of the seventh inning Owen got on base and used his speed and heart to steal home, sealing the win for the Dragons to advance to the Championship round against a loaded Perry team led by the great coaching of Steve Deaton.
During the championship game the Dragons started Zachary Hartz on the mound who kept the scoring and the hitting to an astounding low against a team that had put up 62 runs thus far throughout the tournament.
Madden Perry made a huge double play at first by catching a ball and touching the bag before the runner had time to tag up to inch the Dragons even closer to achieving their goal.
To close the game on the mound Pembroke then turned to Aydaen Windnagle, who struck out batters and played with great composure and confidence right to the end.
With Pembroke holding onto a 7-to-4 lead in the sixth inning of the game with bases loaded you could almost hear the hearts pounding.
The winning play that ended the game sent the Dragons into celebration mode was made by none other than Mason Wetherbee.
A player from Perry took a deep shot to left field and the feeling of time almost stopped as Mason took off toward the ball and made an amazing glove catch before going to the ground.
As Mason came up with the game winning catch the celebration began and the emotional Dragons ran about the field in all their glory. Overall the Dragons played with heart, determination and most importantly as a team lifting each other up a when needed and grinding to the very end brining home the first ever Glow Championship to Pembroke.
The coaching staff of Manager Dan Lang and assistant coaches Lee Hartz, Dan Zika, Arron Post, Luke Windnagle, Ian Wetherbee and Norm Liss would like to congratulate the boys on this hard-fought journey and rising to the challenges they faced to become the Champions that they are.
As we say, you need to over-believe to overachieve and that’s exactly what happened to get the win.
