For the City Times

The Stevens Point Youth Baseball Association (SPYBA) eight-year-olds took to the field this weekend for the Roy Menzel Memorial Tournament.

Stevens Point opened up pool play against the Janesville Red team and quickly jumped out to a 4-0 lead after one inning of play and the score stayed that way through two innings. After four innings of play the score was tied 9-9.

Stevens Point scratched across one run in the top of the fifth to take a 10-9 lead. A lead-off triple by Janesville in the bottom of the inning was wiped away with a double play, and the Stevens Point team took the 10-9 lead into the sixth.

Point added two insurance runs in the top of the sixth and retired the side in order in the bottom of the inning to come out with a hard fought 12-9 victory.

Ben Hopp, Grant Jahnke and Calvin Roth lead the attack with three hits apiece.

The second game of pool play found the Stevens Point team playing Reedsburg. Stevens Point got off to a 5-0 lead after two innings and didn’t look back.

The Stevens Point bats stayed hot and the game ended 14-4 in the bottom of the fifth inning. Grant Jahnke, Dash Kvatek and Brett Lefebvre each had three hits to lead the hitting for Stevens Point.

The win put Stevens Point at 2-0 in pool play and into the semifinal bracket for Sunday’s games.

In the semifinal, Stevens Point played the Wausau Comets. It was a close game throughout and Stevens Point was down 4-3 after four innings.

Stevens Point then scored four runs in the top of the fifth to pull ahead; they tacked on one more in the sixth and held on for a 8-6 win to move into the championship game. Max Lutgen had three hits in the game.

In the championship game, it was a rematch with the Janesville Red team, and Stevens Point ran into some hot hitting by the Janesville team that they couldn’t overcome.

After going down 8-0 after two innings, Point tallied five runs in the third to make it 8-5 after three, but they couldn’t keep the runs coming and claimed second place after the 15-6 decision. Dash Kvatek led the way with three hits.

The Stevens Point team consists of Josh Czerneski, Ian Ekstrand, Austin Gray, Ben Hopp, Grant Janhke, Koy Karaliunas, Dash Kvatek, Brett Lefebvre, Max Lutgen, Nolan Pratt and Calvin Roth.

Stevens Point-12
Janesville Red-9
3 hits: Calvin Roth, Ben Hopp, Grant Jahnke
2 hits: Dash Kvatek, Austin Gray, Koy Karaliunas, Nolan Pratt
Triple-Roth
Double-Roth-2, Gray, Jahnke-2

Reedsburg-4
Stevens Point-14
5 innings
3 hits: Dash Kvatek, Grant Jahnke, Brett Lefebvre
2 hits: Calvin Roth, Ben Hopp, Austin Gray, Koy Karaliunas, Max Lutgen, Nolan Pratt
HR-Jahnke
Double-Lefebvre, Pratt-2

Stevens Point-8
Wausau-6
3 hits-Max Lutgen
2 hits-Ben Hopp, Austin Gray, Koy Karaliunas
Triple-Gray
Double-Grant Jahnke, Karaliunas, Lutgen
Janesville Red-15
Stevens Point-6
3 hits-Dash Kvatek
2 hits-Grant Jahnke
Double-Jahnke

SPYBA Weekly Results
June 20-23

11/12 League
A’s (4-4) 13 Orioles (4-4) 9
A’s- 2B- Matthew Eiden, Damian Cejka; HR- (2) Eiden; 3 Hits- Eiden
Orioles- 2B- Ty Madlena, Benett Klish