Cassville Democrat: High School Sports: Legion team rolls; JV wins tournament (06/26/08)

Legion team claims another championship The 17-and-under members of the Cassville American Legion Post #118 baseball team won the championship of the 2008 Ozarks Invitational Classic in Harrison, Ark. The tournament was held June 21 and 22 and the Cassville squad went undefeated over the two days of play. Pictured above are members of the championship team. They include: Cody Pierson, Ricky Vanderpool, Travis Northern, Jake Nolan, Aaron Brooks, Trevor Tanner, Kyle Rhea, David Lunsford and Cody Cantwell, all of Cassville; Josh Hartin, Caleb Mitchell and Levi Roberts, all of Southwest; and Jamie Musick, of Wheaton. Post #118 coaches are Jerry Marple, Jeremy Marple, Roger Brock and Chris Musick. Submitted Photo

The Cassville American Legion team picked up two more victories this week. Post #118 destroyed Miller 19-8 and then took down East Newton 10-2. The squad also lost to McDonald County 4-5 this week. All three games were district contests.

Michael Baker was charged with the loss against McDonald County. Travis Northern picked up the victory against Miller, while Jake Nolan did the same against East Newton.

Some of the members of the team who are 17 or younger competed in the Ozarks Invitational Classic held in Harrison, Ark., this past weekend. Cassville's contingent had a great weekend.

The team got off to a rocky start in pool play, giving up eight runs in their first contest before rallying to win 22-8 against Arkansas River Valley. The squad also beat Stillwell, Okla., by a score of 6-1 and advanced to the title game.

Harrison, the tournament hosts, played Cassville for the championship, but Post #118 was simply too sharp, winning 8-1 to give them a weekend sweep.

As a team, Cassville had a monumental weekend. The team garnered 34 hits at Harrison with eight home-runs. Travis Northern had three homers, Cody Pierson added two and Aaron Brooks, Jake Nolan and Caleb Mitchell all contributed one home run.

On the hill, Cassville got very good pitching with Kyle Rhea, Brooks and Nolan all picking up victories.

The varsity squad will will take part in the Monett wood bat tournament this weekend. Cassville is scheduled to play on Saturday at 2 p.m. against Republic and at 7 p.m. against Monett. They will also play Sunday with the time of their game depending on the results of their two preliminary games. The championship game will be played at 6 p.m., the third-place game at 3:30 p.m. and the fifth place game at 1 p.m.