BGRA All-Stars Take The Field

Jonny Kull is a pitcher for the Diamondbacks. He made the Stallion League All-Team in the Buffalo Grove Recreation Association. That meant a shot at playing an All-Star game in the heat on Sunday. But more than that, this player's eyes must have grown big when he spotted the cover shot of the BGRA All-Star Fourth of July celebration program.

He was on it, getting ready to pitch, in full color. One of the players during the Mustang All-Star game spotted it and told his teammate he wanted to be on the cover.

In the extreme heat on Saturday at , the plan was to watch the Mustang League All-Star game go a full nine innings. Two hours later, they decided seven innings was enough. The American League rallied to post a 13-9 decision.

Tyler Kipley led off this game for the American League with a rocket grounder to third base. Henry Nelson, playing third for the National League, calmly fielded the ball and tossed Kipley out at first.

The National League struck first in the home half of the first. Phillip Clements of the Reds drilled a double to center. Tyler Zinn followed with another blast to center. There were two runs on the board following A.J. Weine's RBI grounder.

By the second, it was 4-0. The Dodgers' Michael Youkhanna had a bad hop single and scored in this frame. Pierce Baretz also had a hit in this inning.

This game looked be out of reach when the National League struck for four runs in the fourth. Josh Nimmo, Tyler Phillips and Baretz all had hits in a four-run inning. The National League was in control at 8-2.

And then the American League struck back. A three-run inning was highlighted by Andrew Davis' second hit of the game. This White Sox player had three hits in the game including a pair of doubles and drove in three runs. In the fifth inning, Brandon Frankel (Rangers) had a key two-run double.

The sixth inning was key for the winning American League team. Davis had a two-run double. The A's Alec Gern drilled an RBI single. Six runs went up on the board.

Also taking part in this contest were Brock Dempsey, Brandon Turofsky, Frankie Carris, Eli Gurin, Matt Brunelli, Anderson Casas, RJ Holes, Tomoyasu Tamaki, Matthew Pappageorge, Justin Tumpowski, Daniel (Moose) Goldstein, Sloan Kipley, Brenden Jakosalem, Tommy Marienau, Tommie Lucas, Tyler Sparling, R.J. Holmes and Daniel Jouran.

The coaches helping out in this event were Steve Turofsky, Al Weine, Dave Zinn, Ken Nimmo, Elliott Baretz, Dan Flammang, Jeff Weinstein, Lee Goldstein, Scott Marienau and Jim Kuhr.

This busy event brought in All-Star games from the Pinto, Farm, Colt, Stallion, Palomino, Thoroughbred and Buddy Baseball teams. There were skills competitions and Home Run Derbies.