Although the Cougars couldn't come up with a win in the championship game, the first annual "Cougar Wooden Bat Classic" went very well. Participating teams from Chester, Ladue, and Casey-Westfield provided the Cougars with some very worthy competition and the mild spring weather was the perfect backdrop for an exciting weekend of baseball.

After both going 2-0 in their first two games, the Cougars and the Yellow Jackets from Chester battled it out in the championship game. The hot-hitting Jacket team pounded out 9 hits and took advantage of two miscues by the Cougars in the early going to pick-up the 7-4 win.

Things began fast and furious when the Jacket lead-off hitter ripped a double over the 3rd base bag and after an RBI single, a Cougar error, and an RBI groundout, Chester had a 2-0 lead.

The Cougars quickly answered back in their half of the first with 3 runs when Brock Adams reached on a fielder's choice, Kevin Wilkins beat out an infield single, Brian Wodkta singled (RBI), and Nick Jones reached on a throwing error, allowing two more runs to cross the plate.

The Jackets regained the lead in the second when they scored 3 more runs on another Cougar error, a walk, a double, a groundout, and an RBI single for the 5-3 advantage.

Things would remain that way until the fourth when Chester plated two more runs on consecutive singles by their 1-2-3-4 hitters. Starting pitcher Jeremy Chasteen quickly settled down and easily retired the Jackets the rest of the way, but the Cougars could only muster 1 more run themselves, that coming in the 5th on a single and stolen base by Tyler Burns and an RBI single by Adams.

To reach the championship game, the Cougars had to win their first two games and they did so with wins over Casey-Westfield (2-1) on Friday night and Ladue (2-0) on Saturday morning.

Game one saw Spencer Patton pitch 6 1/3 of 1-run baseball before Jeremy Chasteen relieved him with one out in the 7th and the game tied. Chasteen retired the last two batters and picked-up the win when the Cougars scored the winning run in the bottom half of the inning. Patton walked 4 batters, but struck out 8 while allowing only 4 hits in another fine performance for the freshman hurler.

The game-winning rally started when Matt Wegener led off the inning with one of the three Cougar hits of the game. After a fielder's choice and a sacrifice bunt by Matt Hicks, Brock Adams blooped a single to shallow left field to bring home pinch-runner Dirk Jones with the winning run.

Game two was similar to game one as Brian Wodtka pitched shutout ball and rock-solid defense paved the way in this 2-0 victory over the Ladue Rams. Wodtka allowed a meager 4 hits while striking out 3 enroute to his complete game performance.

The Cougars scored single runs in the third and fourth innings on an RBI double by Brock Adams and a squeeze-bunt RBI single by Nick Jones. Adams had three hits for the game to lead the Cougars while Jeremy Chasteen (double) and Brian Wodtka (single) each collected one hit apiece.

The tournament was well-attended by the Cougar parents and fans and the support shown for the Cougar fundraising efforts was overwhelming. A big "THANK YOU" goes out to everyone who helped make this first annual event a huge success.