Plum 12U Cooperstown team earns runner-up finish at Cal Ripken tournament
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When one door closed, another opened for the Plum 12U Cooperstown baseball team.
When the team found out its spring Cooperstown, N.Y., tournament trip was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic, it hoped to find other opportunities to compete.
One opportunity came in the form of a tournament at the Cal Ripken Experience in Myrtle Beach, S.C., last week, and Plum finished runner-up out of the 15 teams in the field.
Between pool play and the bracket playoffs, Plum won six of the eight games.
“The boys played their best week of baseball during this event,” coach Kirk Rhoades said. “We knew we had a talented team going into the event, but it was hard to say how we would fare playing other teams from around the country.
“I’m so thankful they got an opportunity to be kids and play baseball this summer. After Cooperstown was canceled, we had no idea how the year would play out. Having the opportunity to go to Myrtle Beach as a team and have so much success was an awesome feeling for everyone.”
Plum went 4-1 in pool play, winning four straight after losing its opener. It scored pool-play wins against teams from Florida, Ohio and New Hampshire.
As the No. 4 seed for the playoffs, Plum knocked off the No. 5 seed in the quarterfinals and upset the No. 1 seed, Florida’s Weston Travel Ball Prime, 5-4, in the semifinals.
In a rematch of a pool-play game won by Plum, the South Florida Contenders, the No. 6 seed, won 11-4 in the championship game.
“Obviously, it was disappointing to lose in the championship game to a team we had beaten earlier in the week, but the boys never gave up and played so well all week that it was hard to feel anything but pure joy for them,” Rhoades said.