KMC team heads to Little League World Series

***image1***The KMC Little League District and Ramstein hosted three teams during the Europe, Middle East and Africa Regional Senior Little League Softball Tournament from July 19 to 25.

The tournament competitors included the German-American team from the KMC Little League District and teams from Italy and Poland.  The KMC German-American team beat Italy 6-0 and Poland 10-4 in pool play and Poland again in the championship game.  The championship game concluded with a score of 8-2 with the KMC German-American team winning the 2008 EMEA Championship and a trip to the Little League Senior League Softball World Series set for Lower Sussex Delaware from Sunday to Aug. 9.

 “This is the best team I have seen in 10 years.” said John Kuykendall, Little League Regional Tournament director, about the KMC German-American Senior Girls All-Star team. 

“The (German-American) team worked very hard preparing for the regional tournament,” said Phil Byrd, manager of the winning team.  “They were hungry to win because the team lost in the championship game last year.” 

This accomplishment is amazing considering just a week ago, four of the 11 athletes were hurt and unable to practice.

 The German-American team played by the adage, “offense wins games, defense wins championships.” 

The team piled up 24 runs on 28 hits while only giving up six runs on eight hits the entire tournament. The all-star team rode the pitching guns of Maddie Byrd and Lindsay Jones who provided a one-two punch, limiting the Polish team to only five hits in the championship game. Byrd struck out six in the championship game, racking up a total of 25 strikes in three games.  Offense was a team effort led by Byrd who hit .454 (5/11) followed by Alexis Tremble and Becky Pletzer at .428 (3/7). Jones and Bianca Lopez both hit an impressive .363 (4/11) while Kaylin Hesler and Kaitlyn Martin followed with an enviable .300 (3/10) for the tournament. 

 The EMEA champions depart for the United States today with opening ceremonies starting Sunday. Their first game is set for 5:30 p.m. EST Monday against the Asia-Pacific Team from the Philippines.  You can track their progress by logging on to www.district3.org/.

(Courtesy of KMC Little League District)