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| 7/29/2010 4:20:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article | Burlington 12-year-old All-Stars take district title
The Burlington 12-year-old Little League all-stars won the Wisconsin District 6 Championship Saturday in Lakeland.
The squad is now one of just six teams left in the state tournament. Burlington will compete at state at West Bend July 24-30.
The winner of the state tournament will represent Wisconsin in the Little League World Series tournament. Regional playoffs will be held in Indianapolis, and then headed toward Williamsport, Pa., for the Little League World Series.
"We played the games very smartly," said assistant coach Dave Heiligenthal, pointing to the work done by Steve Spitzer in correcting the team's errors. "He's got a lot of years of experience helping us out.
"It was pretty awesome," Heiligenthal said. "This is one of the best teams I've seen come up in Burlington in a while."
Burlington got out to a fast start in their bracket by defeating Franklin American 14-0. Kross Krueger pitched three shutout innings and was relieved by Mitch Klug in a game shortened by the 10-run rule.
Erik Viel and Ben Heiligenthal homered in the opener, while Cal Tully was 2-for-3 with a double and two singles. Kyle Jones added a triple while Jake Webley added a double.
Additional offense was provided by Bryan Sturdevant, Eric Behnke, Klug and Hous-ton Cowan.
Burlington's second game in the tournament was against Lakeland. Burlington once again was not shy at the plate, scoring 12 runs. Cal Sanfelippo pitched four shutout innings, and the squad got a lights-out performance by Cowan in relief to strike out the remaining three batters of Lakeland in the five-inning shortened, 12-0 game.
Klug started the game with a double to left centerfield and went 3-for-4 at the plate. Sanfelippo also sent a towering home run over the right center field fence.
The defense for the Burlington team was top notch.
Burlington defeated South Milwaukee 11-2 in the third game with another stellar performance by Kross Krueger. Cowan and Tully came on for relief performances.
Another fast start in the first inning provided Burlington with the lead 3-0 with hits by Tully, Behnke and a double by Sanfelippo. Cal Tully hit a line shot home run to right field in the fourth.
Isaiah Brenner was 3-for-4 in the game with three solid singles. Jones added a triple in the fifth with Webley adding another single.
Kenosha gave Burlington its closest game of the tour-nament in the fourth game of the tournament. Since this is a double elimination tourna-ment, this game meant the winner would go to the championship and would have to be defeated twice in a row to lose the district.
Burlington came out on top with a 6-0 victory. Sanfellipo pitched another gem allowing zero runs in a complete game shutout of Kenosha. Burling-ton used the bunt effectively by advancing runners and playing a little small ball to generate runs.
Sturdevant played awesome defense at third base robbing Kenosha of a potential triple down the third-base line with a nice grab over his head. All six runs for Burlington were scored in the second inning with Sturdevant leading off with a walk, Heiligenthal bunted down third base to advance Sturdevant to third base. Hits by Klug, Tully and Sanfelippo scored Krueger, Viel, Sturdevant and Heiligenthal.
The championship game featured Lakeland, which worked its way back from an early loss to Burlington earlier in the tournament only to face Burlington again.
Lakeland would have to defeat Burlington twice in a row to advance to the state tournament. Burlington got off to a 2-0 lead in the first inning against Lakeland.
With two outs in the first Burlington scored with the help of Jones - who pinch ran for Behnke - (walked) and scored on a wild pitch. Bryan Sturdevant singled and got to second base on a wild pitch.
Heiligenthal doubled and brought in Sturdevant. Krueger again was on his "A" game thru the first two innings. Burlington led 7-0 by the third inning with hits and scoring by Klug (triple), Sturdevant, Tully, Behnke and capped off with a two-run home run by Heiligenthal.
Lakeland rallied in the fourth by scoring five runs making the score 8-5 after four complete. Burlington again played some power ball mixed with small ball making the score 14-5 when it was all said and done.
Coaches for the 12 year old all stars are Jeff Klug (head coach) with assistant coaches Scott Behnke, Steve Spitzer and David Heiligenthal.
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