Cornell kids get a chance to play on their dream field

For a handful of Cornell kids, the Field of Dreams became real for them, July 17-20, as the 12U Hallie Heat and 13U Blue Travel baseball teams, played in a tournament, made up of youth from Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Illinois and Missouri. The Field of Dreams Tournament takes place in, and around, Dyersville, Iowa, and celebrates America’s love of baseball, as well as the classic 1989 film of the same name. Two finalist teams play the championship game on the actual Field of Dreams movie site field. Hallie won both games in pool play, out of 18 teams, and played four games, with Cornell seventh graders Peyton Hugh and Eastyn Short, as part of the squad. In the quarter finals, against the Oak Park Eagles, of Illinois, the Heat fought back in the last couple innings. They were down seven runs, but walked it off, to win the game 12-11. In the semi-finals game, when they were down six runs in the fifth inning, Hallie surprised the Yellowjackets of Missouri, to win it in an extra inning, with a final score of 8-7. In the championship game, the Heat were down 0-3, until the third inning, when they came through to win, with a final score of 5-4. As for the Blue, they faced the Oswego Panthers their first pool play game and had a rough time getting anything going, and took a tough loss, 13-4. They then had to play their second pool game right away, against Sanford White from South Dakota, who would eventually make the championship game. Blue got down early, but climbed out of the hole, to get back in the game, 6-4. In the top of the sixth inning, with a runner on base, Paxton Hugh, from Cornell, stepped in and hit a two-run shot, to tie the game. Frank Lompa, also from Cornell, contributed in the earlier rally, with an RBI single, plus being super versatile moving all over the field defensively. The Blue took the game, then faced off with the Illinois Hawks from Aurora, Ill., in their bracket play game, starting off strong, scoring four runs in the first and a run in the second, but were unable to keep the eventual tournament champion down and ended up losing 13-7.