The "Suicide Squeeze Sends It Into Extra Innings" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Champions of the Lancaster County Jr. Midget (ages 14 and under) Baseball League was just decided.  The Mountville Angels are the champs!  My grandson Caden has played in organized baseball for over a half dozen years now and this was the biggest game he has ever played in to date.  Lancaster County is rich in baseball tradition and just about every small town in the county has a team in the Lancaster County League.  At the end of the season the top eight teams square off in the Lancaster County Championship Tournament which is sponsored by the Lancaster Newspaper.  Caden's team ended the season as the second seed and played the 7th seeded team Donegal in the first round of the double-elimination tournament.  It took three games to advance to the semi-finals where they faced a team from Ephrata at Mt. Joy's Kunkle field.  Once again, they needed to lose two games before being eliminated in tournament.  They defeated Ephrata 6-1 to advance to the finals against a team from nearby Lititz.  They once again needed to beat the team from Lititz twice so they could be the champs.  If they happened to lose the first game they would have a second chance to try and force one final game.  Before I tell you what happened in the game, I should give you some background into the tournament that at one time was known as the New Era Tournament which was sponsored by the Lancaster New Era newspaper.  It was an honor to be a boy living in Lancaster and play in the tournament.  As a young boy I played in the Midget-Midget tournament for Schick and came to the plate in the semi-finals and hit a shot with the bases loaded.  My third-base coach had me try for a homerun, but I was tagged out at the plate.  We won, but lost in the finals that year.  While playing in the Midget tournament with the Grandview team I once again drove in a run in the quarter-finals, but lost in the next game.  My oldest son, Derek, got to play in the Jr. Midget tournament finals, but lost.  Two years later, playing in the Midget Division with the Sertoma team, his team won the championship.  My youngest son got to play in six tournaments where his team, which I coached for those six years, lost the first five years, being beaten by the same team each year.  Seems the Willow Street team had a young pitcher, who eventually played in the Philadelphia Phillies organization, that we just couldn't beat.  The final year this young man was injured and we made it to the finals where we managed to win the title against a team coached by my wife's cousin who had also played professional baseball.  Exciting times for both sons and me.  Well, fast forward to a few days ago when Mountville played Lititz in the tournament to determine the LNP champion.  

Pix in newspaper of Caden pithing in the 1st game of the finals.

At the time my wife, Carol, and I were on vacation with our daughter and her family so we watched the first game on my phone using the Game- Changer app.  Caden made the next morning's newspaper when he hit a homerun over the fence in left field.  His team won the game over Lititz by the score of 8-3.  Since it was a double-elimination tournement,

Caden (#29) crossing the plate after hitting his homerun.
This photo was taken by the newspaper photographer
and was on the front page of the Sports Section.

 if they won the next game they would be champs.  We arrived home from vacation Saturday with the game taking place on Monday evening.  Lititz needed to win to force game three and after a few innings it looked as though that was going to happen when they took a 7 run lead after 4 innings.  Then in the 5th inning Mountville scored a pair of runs to pull within 5.  Looked rather bleak when they came to  bat in the bottom of the 7th (this age plays only 7 innings) needing 5 runs, but they managed to tie up the score when Caden laid down a suicide squeeze bunt with one out and a man on third.  

The team celebrating winning the Lancaster County Championship.
Caden is the player on the right with the black batting helmet.

The runner headed home as the pitcher wound up and Caden turned to bunt.  If he missed the ball, the player would be out at home.  Didn't happen!  Perfect bunt and the game was 7-7.  Lititz got the final out, forcing another inning.  Neither team threatened in the 8th inning forcing the ninth.  Mountville held Lititz and came to bat.  The Lititz pitcher got two quick outs then Hunter Williams singled and took second when the ball was bobbled in the outfield.  

Final score on the scoreboard.  The Angels were the home team.

The next batter hit a ball to the third-baseman who bobbled it before throwing it to first.  Hunter, running with the pitch from 2nd rounded third and kept on running home as the ball was thrown late to first and the subsequent throw to home was too late as Hunter slid under the glove of the Lititz catcher.  Then the celebration began with the Angels storming the field.  Mountville ended the year at 25-7 with the big win at the end of the year to win the County Championship.  Another baseball memory for my family as well as every other family of the Mountville team.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

The parent who punches in every play so everyone can watch GameChanger on their phone or computer with the  GameChanger app saw this while Caden was batting.  The app stopped working, since the parent's phone ran out of charge and could not broadcast the end of the game.  Our phones began to buzz with anxious viewers wondering what had happened.  Good results were given to each caller.

After the excitement died down, the team gathered in right field for a talk with the coaches.

The Mountville Angels coach gets doused after the game.

Caden taking the throw at first base during the championship game.

Traditional handshake after the game.

Newspaper photographer taking the celebration with the championship trophy.

Team photo.  Coach on the far left is my son, Derek, and the third person from the top right is grandson Caden.