KMC All-Stars bounced from Euro quarterfinals
Published: July 9, 2012
The less-than-optimal pitching and defense which plagued the Kaiserslautern Military Community All-Stars all last week in Little League Baseball’s European Junior League Regional Tournament in Kutno, Poland, culminated in a tourney-ending 10-1 quarterfinal loss Saturday to unbeaten Italy.
The 13-14-year-old KMC All-Stars surrendered 63 runs in going 2-4 in the 11-team tournament, which sends Monday’s title-game winner – either Italy or the Czech Republic – to Little League’s Junior World Series next month in Taylor, Mich. KMC’s victories came in the team's second and third games in pool play, 16-13 over Belarus and 5-0 over the Netherlands. KMC reached the quarterfinals despite losing its final pool-play game to Germany, 16-6, by tying Belarus in the pool standings at 2-3. The Americans claimed the fourth and final spot in the quarterfinals from their pool by virtue of the head-to-head victory over Belarus.
Next up for KMC-area Little Leaguers are the Little League and Junior League Softball European Regionals to be played Thursday-Sunday near Milan, Italy. Those events, for 11-12- and 13-14-year-old girls, respectively, are to be played concurrently. The European Little League and Junior League champions advance to next month’s Little League Softball World Series in Portland, Ore., and Kirkland, Wash., respectively
