Jesuit’s JV baseball team competed in the annual Little Elm Tournament February 24-26, 2011, winning all five games and bringing home the championship. In their first game on Thursday afternoon, they defeated McKinney 10-8. An early and chilly morning didn’t slow down the Rangers’ bats for game two as they routed Wakeland 13-0. The third and last pool-play game, later that day against Lovejoy High School, proved nerve-racking, the Rangers closely winning 4-3. Nick Mann ’13 pitched a good game and Wheeler Nakahara scored the winning run in the bottom of the 7th inning. Johnny Morin remarked that the tight competition was your typical “back and forth game.” After the game, Mann explained, “I just did what I knew I had to do, which was keep our team in the game, and I knew our offense would pick up the rest of the slack.” Going undefeated in pool play, the Rangers were placed in the winner’s bracket and had to win on Saturday to get to the championship later that night. Behind Scott Weiss’s ’12 stellar pitching, the Rangers routed Byron Nelson 12-4 as both Phil Young and Grant Hatzmann ’13 hit home runs. Weiss reacted to their win: “I felt great bout there; I was loose and excited. The team chemistry was remarkable, and the offense responded with great support.” In the championship game later in the day, Johnny Morin ’13 pitched an amazing game, tossing a no-hitter. The bats once again came alive for the Rangers and they defeated Dennison High 8-0 to win the championship game. Center fielder Hatzmann exclaimed, “It was just an amazing experience, and I can’t wait until next week so that we can go out and try to win another tournament.”
