City Champs!

The Courier's very own baseball team (okay, we share them with Albertsons) defeated Glasgow Distributors (GD) Monday night to become the Cal Ripken Majors city champs.

GD made their way to the championship game the hard way, fighting their way through the loser's bracket and forcing a second game against Albertsons/Courier (A/C). A/C had been undefeated in the tournament until Sunday afternoon, when GD handed them their first loss.

With Rance Rhoads pitching for A/C and Kiegan Ingram on the mound for GD, Monday night's game went scoreless for three full innings.

In the bottom of the fourth inning, Mark Eliason got the bats going for A/C with a base hit, followed by a double by Beau Malnaa, which advanced Eliason to third.

Not to be out-done by the boys, Eve Stone stepped up to the plate and knocked out a two-RBI single to give A/C a 2-0 lead.

Unable to score in the fifth, GD took the field and prepared to amp up their defense. Unfortunately A/C was able to extend their lead to 4-0 after Eliason and Malnaa each scored runs in the bottom of the inning.

The top of the sixth inning was GD's last opportunity to score and deny a shut out by the home team.

Ingram sparked hope in his team when he swatted a two-base hit on his turn at the plate. With a daunting two outs on the scoreboard, Jake Kuka stepped up and squared off against pitcher Eliason.

With a grounder to right field, Kuka brought in Ingram for an RBI and GD's first run of the game.

There wasn't enough time for GD to capitalize on the two-out rally, however, and they fell to A/C with a final score of 4-1.

Awards were presented to the first- and second-place teams, and CHMS/Pepsi was honored with the annual sportsmanship award. The Cal Ripken Minors tourney will be held at Jeff Jurgens Field this weekend with games scheduled to begin Thursday.