Northwest Crushers U14 take title in Lake in the Hills tourney

The U14 Northwest Crushers Travel Baseball Team won the Northern Illinois Competitive Baseball League Tournament Championship at Plote Field in Lake in the Hills on Tuesday, July 16, in a very close league championship game.

There was an exciting finish to the championship game as the Crushers had a three-run lead going in to the bottom of the last inning. The opposing team from Lake Forest (Scouts) rallied to load the bases, but the Crushers held on for a final score of 11-8.

The Crushers, who play their home games in Hoffman Estates, advanced to the 10-team single-elimination tournament bracket and won their final six games of the tournament.

The Crushers were led throughout the tournament by outstanding pitching performances from Ryan Dowd, Brooks Gosswein, Jeff Korus and Jack Trembley. Solid hitting performances by Blake Gosswein, Nic Malik, Jeff Korus, Tommy Josten, and Drew Lemonidis also helped the team advance. The Crushers had excellent defensive performances from Joe Kranz, Jose Aguilar, Mark Bach, Collin Heidner, and Dylan Schoknecht.

Head Coach Ed Korus, not usually at a loss for words, said after the game, “How can words explain what we’ve experienced over the past week — It’s indescribable! I am so happy for the boys. They’ve worked so hard over the past six and a half months and really deserve this.”

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