COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – In summer league baseball, it will be a Monday finish in Coldwater for the AABC Mickey Mantle U-16 North Central Regional, which has had to deal with weather delays and altered schedules since it started Friday morning. The host local team, the Coldwater Redbirds, was eliminated yesterday from the round robin tournament, which will wrap up today at Lowe Field with the semifinals and championship game with the action beginning at 3 p.m. this afternoon.
The Redbirds under Coach Corey Post had a 2-2 record in the regional. On Saturday, Coldwater beat the Troy Cardinals 5-4 at Borden Field. Lucas Santure earned the win in relief, tossing one run ball over 3-and-two-thirds innings with 2 hits allowed and no walks. Austin Butler had 3 singles and an RBI while Eric Bach added 2 singles with an RBI.
Then Sunday morning, again at Borden Field, the Redbirds lost a heartbreaker, 7-6 in nine innings to the Niles, Illinois Braves. Coldwater came up just short of advancing to the Championship round after finishing in a 3-way tie in their division with Troy staying alive based fewer runs allowed. In the loss to Niles, Alex Everett suffered the defeat, pitching the ninth and giving up one run on one hit. The game was tied 4-4 after seven innings and then both teams scored twice in the 8th before Niles prevailed. Caleb Letendre had a double and a single for Coldwater and scored 3 runs while Collin Torrey had a double and a single with an RBI. The Redbirds finished the season with a 30-9 record.
At 3 p.m. today, it’s Niles vs. Shamrock Baseball of Battle Creek in the first semifinal, followed by a 5:15 p.m.matchup between Troy and West Michigan Elite. The title game is 7:30 p.m. for the event that Coldwater has hosted for the 46th straight year. The winning team advances to the Mickey Mantle World Series which starts July 28th in McKinney, Texas.
