(Chelsea Update would like to thank Andrew Thomson for the information in this story.)
For the first time in Chelsea Little League history, a group of young, energetic 8, 9, and 10-year-olds represented the league in the Michigan District 3 Minors Softball Tournament.
This group of 12 girls got the luck of the draw and were able to sit back in the first round to wait for the winner between two very talented teams from Lincoln and Milan.
On July 20, at the home field of Jackson Southwest Little League, the Chelsea squad faced the winning Lincoln team. Unfortunately, they ran into strong pitching that limited them to only two runs, while a couple of big innings allowed Lincoln to plate 12 runs. Lincoln won by a final of 12-2 and bumped Chelsea into the consolation bracket.
On July 21, the Chelsea team squared off against the team from Jackson Northwest and found themselves in a slugfest. Chelsea came out swinging in the first two innings, putting nine runs on the Northwest team. Later in the game though, Northwest came storming back and ended up winning the elimination game by a final score of 18-10.
Chelsea manager Jennifer Parisho said after the tough loss, “We wish we could have played longer in the tournament, but the girls and the coaches all had fun just the same. We’ll try again next year.”
The future is strong for this hungry group of players as they look forward to the 2018 season.
This year’s tournament team has only five girls who will advance to the Majors division for next year.
