Hart Emerges From Rain With Junior Olympic Title

Any baseball tournament that brings together the national winners of four leagues and bills itself the “Super Series” must be, well, super . Right?

Not according to the Hart Colt baseball team.

Hart swept the Junior Olympic Super Series last weekend in Youngstown, Ohio, after winning the Colt World Series two weeks ago. But the significance of the Super Series paled in comparison to the world series.

“I guess this means more but the world series was tougher,” pitcher Keith Halcovich said. “I don’t think it was as big a deal as the world series, but everyone was happy.”

Hart won two doubleheaders in three days last week, but Sunday’s gold medal game was rained out. Hart, which was 4-0 and had beaten Midland, Ohio, the second-place team, 7-1, on Wednesday, was declared the tournament champion.

“We wanted to play Sunday. We wanted to show that we were the best team, but that’s the way it goes. We wanted to get back home,” pitcher Andrew Lorraine said. “We knew we were the best team. We’re the world champions.”

Hart played two doubleheaders because its Tuesday and Thursday games were rained out. Although four games in three days normally would sap a pitching staff, Hart’s rotation responded by allowing only 1.25 runs a game.

“We have enough pitchers that the doubleheaders didn’t matter,” said Halcovich, who allowed six hits over 5 innings in a 2-1 victory over Midland last Wednesday.

The championship is the fourth in three years for six players on Hart’s team who were members of squads that won the Pony League World Series in 1986 and the Babe Ruth championship in 1987.