Forest City’s 12 year old baseball All-Stars returned home Sunday evening fromSpringfield, where they competed with 12 other teams this past weekend in the PA Cal Ripken 12U State Tournament.

They won their first two games, a 12-11 win overPerryCounty, then a 6-4 win overBrandywine.

Their third game found them up against the 201111UStateChampions and tournament host,Springfield. Springfieldwasted no time showing why they were last year’s state champs, dispatching our 12 year old squad 11-0 in four innings.

With their heads held high, they entered their last game in pool play with a good chance to be one of the four teams to advance to Monday’s elimination rounds.  But it was not to be, as the young Foresters fell to Ridley by a score of 5-2.

Finishing the tournament with a 2-2 record typically means you don’t advance, but since every team inForestCity’s pool beat up on each other, four teams finished with a 2-2 record. Springfieldwas the only team to go 4-0 in their pool.  The tie-breaker of average runs allowed per inning hadForestCityfall short of claiming the last spot to advance.

Although a little disappointed in the end, everyone was very pleased with their performance.  These players showed a lot of heart going up against players from much bigger leagues, proving to themselves and everyone else that they can compete with anyone.

Team members are: Lucy Adams, Ian Bailey, MacKenzie Hartman, Chris Karwan, RJ Kuruts, Andrew Larson, Nick Megivern,Jerrad Non,JordanNon, and Kyle Shema.   Manager was Tom Bailey, assisted by Jerry Kuruts and Lynn Megivern.