by Randy Byers
2007 Houston 5A Baseball.com

The Academy / TASO-Houston Tournament Championship Game is never at a loss for excitement and Saturday morning at Minute Maid Park was no different. The 7th annual Tournament culminated with the Lamar Redskins (20-5A) staging a miraculous comeback against district (20-5A) foe Bellaire Cardinals to claim the 2007 Academy / TASO Championship 5-4.


A pair of standouts sporting the same name were the pitchers of record, Tyler Duffey (Bellaire), and Tyler Duffie (Lamar) W. The game started with a bang as both teams scored two runs each in the first inning. The score remained tied at two until the top of the third when Kyle Chaskin drilled a Scott Erzinger offering into the right field upper deck giving the Cardinals a 3-2 advantage.


That score remained until the top of the seventh when with one out and Wes Mercurio on first, Jeremy Shaffer drilled a double to the left center gap scoring Mercurio staking the Cardinals to a 4-2 seventh inning lead. Just one week ago Lamar found themselves in a similar situation down two runs to the Cardinals in the bottom of the seventh and a walk off home run by Shane Struska advanced Lamar to the next round. In Saturdays Championship the Redskins Struska reached on an error. Bracht singled to left. A pass ball moved them to second and third. Anthony Rendon singled to center scoring Struska. Dennison grounded sharply to shortstop and an errant throw allowed both (Cruz, pinch running for Bracht) and Rendon to win the game for Lamar.


So the 2007 Academy / TASO-Houston Baseball Umpires Scholarship Tournament comes to a close crowning a new Champion and giving us all a glimpse of whats in store for 2008. The 2007 Championship was a well attended game by the local faithful as well as various media sources that want to be known for covering High School Baseball but found it only necessary to cover the final game of a 180 game tournament. Houston 5A Baseball is proud to be your source for High School Baseball in Houston and proud to cover the tremendous event that is the Academy-TASO each year from the first to the last game played. We Are There.



Championship 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E LOB
Bellaire ------- 2 0 1 0 0 0 1 4 5 2 6
Lamar----------2 0 0 0 0 0 3 5 9 2 4


WP-Tyler Duffie
LP-Tyler Duffey

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