Team USA players help Strikers win Pleasantville tournament
My Second Home’s Ethan Ringlien delivered a pitch during the Pleasantville Lions Club’s annual Fourth of July tournament last weekend. (Times photograph by Andrew Dannehy)
Christian Pacheco of the Pigeon Falls Lions Club delivered a pitch during his team’s 8-0 win over Cushing at the Pleasantville Lions Club’s Fourth of July Tournament held last weekend. The Pigeon Falls Lions Club finished second, losing only to Strikers Lanes. (Times photograph by Andrew Dannehy)
A pair of brothers who suited up for the 2023 Team USA U18 Men’s National team helped Striker’s Lanes of Baldwin win the annual Pleasantville Lions Club’s Fourth of July Fastpitch Softball Tournament.
Braden Ducharme pitched the Baldwin-based team to an 8-0 win over the Pigeon Falls Lions Club team in the championship game on Sunday. He struck out eight and allowed one hit. His twin brother, Brennon, had two hits and scored two runs in the game. The Ducharme brothers are from Hudson.
Strikers went undefeated in the tournament. Braden Ducharme outdueled Whitehall High School graduate Ethan Ringlien to beat My Second Home in the tournament’s first game. Ducharme allowed two hits and struck out 17 in the 5-0 win. Ringlien struck out 13 and allowed six hits.
Ducharme struck out 13 in a 7-0 win over Wason’s Supper Club. Strikers defeated the Pigeon Falls Lions in the semifinal to advance to the championship where they beat the local team again.
The Pigeon Falls Lions was a team of area players that was put together by the former Foster Fireside manager Trevor Hammer. Foster Fireside is not fielding a team this summer. The PF Lions beat the Pleasantville Lions, 5-4; Cushing Tigers, 8-0 and Weiner’s Bar, 4-3 in the tournament.
Weiner’s Bar, Ettrick, placed third. They lost to Cushing Tigers, 5-4, before rebounding with a 5-4 win over Pleasantville in a 10-inning affair in which Matt Stuhr struck out 17, while allowing four hits. Shandler Herman struck out 11 in the losing effort for Pleasantville.
My Second Home was fourth in the tournament, beating Jacobson Electric, 7-0 and Cushing, 4-0, but losing to Strikers and Weiner’s, 4-3 in the double-elimination tournament.
The fastpitch softball tournament continues through the summer. The North American Fastpitch Association State Tournament will be held July 19-21 in Fond du Lac. The NAFA World Series will be Aug. 8 to 11 in La Crosse. The Masters/National Tournament will be Sept. 6-8 in La Crosse.
The next local tournament will be part of Whitehall’s Beef and Dairy Days Aug. 17 and 18.
