The Seattle Stars, a select baseball team of 14-year-olds, captured a Triple Crown World Series title July 28 in Steamboat Springs, Colo.
In seven games, the Stars outscored their opponents 92-25. All but two of their wins were by 10 or more runs, including a 13-3 six-inning championship victory over the Palm Desert Tigers.
Jeremy Sage’s three-run home run highlighted a four-run second inning for the Stars, who piled on eight more runs in the third. Griffin Sweazey, Travis Snider, A.D. Ardiente and Zach Peach singled, Curt Nelson and Chad Arnold doubled and Jonathan Quiray and Travis Fredericks followed with singles, as the Stars batted around the order for the fourth time at the tournament.
Andrew Hutt held the Tigers — a team that defeated the Stars in a World Series qualifying tournament in March — to six hits.
Seattle’s closest outing was a 5-4 semifinal win over the Dallas Tigers. Both teams struck for four runs in the fourth inning before Fredericks scored the winning run on a fielding error. Arnold struck out six in three innings, Snider held the Tigers scoreless over the final three innings and Conner Rankin caught both pitchers, who throw in the mid-80s.
In the quarterfinals, the Stars jumped to a 12-0 lead in the first two innings en route to a 13-8 win over the St. Louis Marauders. Ardiente went 3-for-3 with two RBI and Sage tripled and drove in two runs.
The Stars opened the tournament with four blowouts wins, starting with a 19-2 bruising of the Arlington Heat. Joey Petosa threw a five-inning complete game in Seattle’s 10-0 second round victory over the East Cobb Mavericks.
Arnold fanned five batters and Ardiente, Hutt and Alex Nipert all doubled to power the Stars over the Tulsa Braves 17-6, setting up a rematch with East Cobb. Fredericks scattered just four hits and collected seven strikeouts and Arnold smacked a three-run home run to pace Seattle to a 15-2 win.
The Stars are coached by Michael Nipert and assistants Chris Sweazey, Denne Snider, Mike Lind and Mike Stanton.
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