Welcome back everyone, we hope you all had a wonderful Fourth of July.

If you watched the Phillies play then you probably did not enjoy your holiday, but regardless, we had a ton of local baseball being played yesterday. The District 19 Little League Tournament had the day off, but the Cal Ripken State Tournament got started in a big way with each team playing two games.

For all of these tournaments, there are 16 teams. Those teams are split into four groups. The top three in each group advance to the elimination round, where the winners of the group get a bye until the elite eight while the second and third place teams play a different group’s second/third place team to get to the elimination round.

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Let’s dive into the action.

12U:

Aston Valley took down Nor Gwyn 8-5 and followed that up with a 3-2 win over Pennsbury to start off their tournament. They will take on Whitpain at 8:00 AM on Saturday, so they may have already played by the time you read this. One way or another, they are moving on will be the #1 seed out of their pool with a win.

Nether-Swarthmore won two low-scoring games, beating Upper Dublin 3-2 and Hatfield 5-4. They will take on a Centennial team at 12:00 that is already 0-2, so there’s a good shot NS goes 3-0 and will not have to play again until Sunday’s elite eight. If they lose, they may have to play again Saturday.

Llanerch Hills won a tight one 7-6 against Boyertown before a tough 15-0 loss to Lower South (weird name for a league but whatever). Llanerch will advance to the knockout stage with a win over Montgomery Saturday at 8:00 AM, and could still advance with a loss depending on the tiebreakers. The tiebreakers can be a bit complicated but it seems like the first one is head-to-head and if there are three teams tied it goes to runs allowed.

BYC lost 4-0 to Lehigh Valley before taking down Hilltop 5-3. They will play Glenside where a win could give them the #1 seed. Hilltop will play Lehigh Valley looking to survive as they started 0-2.

11U:

While the other four tournaments started on Friday, the 11U tournament does not begin until Saturday. Probably something to do with the availability of the host site.

Nether-Swarthmore plays Hilltop and Mongtomery Saturday then Boyertown Sunday.

Aston Valley plays Centennial and Doylestown on Saturday then Whitpain on Sunday.

BYC plays South Parkland and Lower South on Saturday and then a Delco on Delco matchup with Ridley Sunday.

Hilltop plays Nether-Swarthmore and Boyertown Saturday and then Montgomery Sunday.

Llanerch Hills plays Pennsbury and Warrington on Saturday then Upper Merion Sunday.

Ridley plays Lower South and South Parkland on Saturday then BYC on Sunday.

10U:

Nether-Swarthmore brought the bats out today as they beat Lehigh Valley 17-2 and then Glenside 16-7. They have already clinched a spot in the next round but can get that one seed with a win over Upper Dublin Saturday at 10:00 AM.

The host Aston Valley defeated Langhorne 6-5 and lost to Interboro 8-3. Interboro lost 14-8 in their other game, as all four teams in that pool went 1-1. Aston Valley will play Boyertown Saturday at 10:00 AM while Interboro plays Langhorne Saturday at noon, anything can really happen in that group. These teams could either have a bye or be eliminated entirely. Chaos.

Hilltop lost 8-2 to Whitpain but responded with a 20-1 whomping of Quakertown, which is big for tiebreakers which can be runs allowed. They will play Nor Gwyn who is 2-0 as they appear to at least be in a good position to advance barring a blowout loss.

Springfield put a 5-4 loss to Pennsbury behind them with an 8-3 win over Doylestown in Game 2. They’ll play 2-0 Unionville Saturday at 8:00 AM as they try to advance to the knockout stage.

9U

BYC beat up on Pennsbury 11-1 before a closer win over Whitpain 4-0. They have already locked in their spot for the next round but can get the first round bye with a win over Souderton on Saturday at 8:30 AM.

Hilltop had a great offensive day as they beat Centennial 10-5 and Upper Perk 16-6. They have their knockout stage spot secured and will look to get the bye when they face Montgomery on Saturday at 9:00 AM.

Nether-Swarthmore exploded for a 19-3 win against Boyertown before a closer 7-4 win over Del Val. They as well will be heading to the knockout stage and will look to beat Upper Dublin to get the one seed Saturday at 12:30.

It was a tough day for Chichester as they fell 11-1 to Warrington then 11-0 to Langhorne. They will need to beat Upper Merion to stay in the running to advance, but they can’t let up too many runs as one of the main tiebreakers is runs allowed after head-to-head.

8U:

Hilltop blew out Boyertown 10-0 before squeaking out an 8-7 win over Deep Run to clinch a spot in the next round. They will take on Nether-Swarthmore on Saturday at 9:00 AM looking to clinch the one seed.

Speaking of Nether-Swarthmore, they need a win badly as they lost 8-4 to Deep Run and 8-5 to Boyertown. A loss and they will be out, a win could make things interesting. I think Hilltop should do them a Delco favor and let them win so they both advance.

BYC played a wild game that saw them beat Pennsbury 19-18 before a 4-4 tie with Warrington. They should advance one way or another, but they will play Springfield on Saturday at 11:00 AM at BYC to try and secure that.

Speaking of Springfield, they went 2-0 with a 12-9 win over Warrington and an 18-3 win over Pennsbury. Springfield has already clinched their spot, but a win would lock up the one seed against BYC Saturday at 11:00 AM.

Aston Valley lost 15-9 to Lehigh but came back with a 12-1 win over Upper Dublin to get back in the mix. They will play Upper Merion Saturday at 11:00 AM where a win will certainly get them in and a loss will make them have to wait and see.

MLB:

I hope you had something else to do besides watching this game today. Unfortunately I didn’t, but I also had some Surfside Ice Teas (no free ads but they are the best) which definitely helped.

Things started great with the Phillies taking a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first which included a two-run Nick Castellanos homer, but that lead quickly went away with the Reds scoring five in the third in an eventual 9-6 win.

The Phillies are still in a good spot to win this series with Ranger Suarez and Zack Wheeler going, with the former of those starting at 4:05 PM Saturday afternoon.