At about 3:00 P.M. Sunday, Jake Fiegen threw the first pitch in the LSFBL's 13A championship game. Almost 5 hours later, 14A1 exploded for 6 runs in the bottom of the 6th inning against Mundelein. And just a few minutes later, Nate Muhn recorded the final out in the 14B championship game. With that out, New Trier Feeder Baseball clinched the third of its three 2018 LSFBL championships. With last year’s sweep, that means that NTF has won 7 of the last 8 LSFBL Pony championships.

We as an organization could not be more proud of the kids, and there were so many tremendous performances this past week that we can't begin to do them justice. 14A1 fell behind a good Mundelein team, 4-0, then came roaring back to score 3 in the bottom of the 5th and 6 more in the bottom of the 6th to come from behind to win, 9-6, and finish an undefeated LSFBL season, the first in recent memory for NTF. 14B (White) had the hardest road--they had to survive a tough Lake Forest team, then go to Mundelein to upset the #2 seed, then finally beat an undefeated and #1 seeded Mt. Prospect team in the finals--but they pulled it off in stunning fashion, hammering Mt. Prospect in the finals. Finally, 13A1 blitzed its quarterfinal opponent, came from behind to beat Evanston in a hotly contested matchup, and then blew open a 1-1 game against Park Ridge Blue in the final by scoring 9 in the 5th inning.

While we celebrate our champions today, we would be remiss at not pointing out the success of our other teams. 13A2 battled hard all season and was simply undone by some bad luck in losing a number of close games. 13B raced off to a 10-2 start and made it all the way to its Divisional Championship Game, an outstanding showing. 14A2 was one of only two teams to play 14A1 close in the LSFBL, taking it to 7 innings all four times they played. And 14B (Gray) was the hottest team in the program throughout the month of July, winning 8 of 9 games at one point before succumbing to Mt. Prospect—a loss that 14B (White) avenged yesterday. 

The most indelible memory of the week for those of us that run the program, however, was an off the field one. The sheer number of kids who turned up for their friends' games was astonishing to us. In particular, the number of kids that showed up to root on a grieving friend Sunday was heartwarming, and we thank each and every one of them. When we said at the start of the year that this was a community, one in which all 100 of our players was equally important to us, we meant it--and all of us who run this program are so happy to see the kids, over and over again, support each other, both on and off the field.

Thanks for the honor of entrusting the development of your kids to us this season. We hope you are as proud of them as we are.

Drew Cardonick, President
New Trier Feeder Baseball