Bolivar 11U hold strong in World Series

The taste of revenge was in the dugout as the Bolivar 11U came out strong against the Huffman Vikings of Birmingham, AL on Monday, July 20, after losing their only game of the World Series to the Vikings on July 18 in a 19-3 victory for the boys of Birmingham. However, Birmingham fell short at repeating that same victory just a couple nights later as the Bolivar boys came to show they too could play baseball.
“We threw more strikes early on in the game. We played better defense and put some pressure on them. We pitched a little better. The kids played hard tonight,” Bolivar Coach Rob Canten said. “They were embarrassed about the first game and wanted to show everyone that Bolivar baseball was better than what we showed the first game.”
Bolivar jumped to an early 1-0 lead against the Vikings but would only hold that lead briefly until the second inning, when they would fall behind by one after the Vikings would take a 2-3 lead. However, the second inning would prove to be a fatal blow to Huffman.
“The first baseman had a couple mental lapses. I don’t think he’s made any errors all season but it left the flood gates open,” Huffman Coach Curtis Lloyd said.
The floodgates were opened as a combination of hot bats at the plate from Bolivar and plenty of errors on the first baseman’s side from Huffman. It allowed Bolivar to run up a 10-3 score at the end of the second inning and then Aiden Yopp put three up and three down for Bolivar to end the inning.
Bolivar struggled on defense in the third inning after Huffman batters began to crowd the plate and multiple batters were hit by pitches from some of Bolivar’s pitchers, giving Huffman some free bases and at least one free run. However, in spite of crowding the plate and even after an offensive spree of their own, which placed them within two runs of Bolivar at one time, the offensive mount was not enough to overcome the fatal blow Bolivar delivered in the second inning and the defense that maintained the lead the remainder of the game.
Bolivar defeated Huffman 12-9 to move on in the World Series and send Huffman back to Alabama.

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