Street Kids Take Part
in Making Strides for
Breast Cancer
Awareness; Play
Softball for the Cause
South Bend, IN  10/15/2011

For the seventh straight year, members of Street Kids Softball
and Street Kids Care took part in the annual Making Strides for
Breast Cancer Awareness, an event put on by the American
Cancer Society. Players donned new pink t-shirts, donated by
Mid America Sportz, NSA South and Richard Foltz, and walked
the course at Howard Park in South Bend, with the goal of
raising awareness for the most common cancer among
American women, outside of skin cancer. After the Walk, players wore the pink in the final Street Kids tournament of the 2011 season,
the Mishawaka End of Year event.

The tournament featured 8-10 teams vying for one more tourney win before the season ended, and SKS put together some locals to go
out strong. They started out well, beating Royal Excursion 24-9 in six innings. Terry Patesel led the way with five hits while TJ Jorgensen
added four hits. The second round game was against Tasers, who split with Street Kids in the final double header of the fall league
season just a few days earlier. Because of the split, the two teams finished dead even in the standings and were offered a chanced to
play each other during this tourney for the league title. SKS agreed, however, Tasers decided a tie was more suitable, so the tourney
games would have no bearing on the league results. SKS beat Tasers 19-12 to advance to the winners bracket finals. TJ Jorgensen led
the way with four hits while Tim Austin, Luke Myers, Jay Jeffery, Joe Richard and Mike Bailey all added three hits each in the win.

The winners bracket final was against Bravo Cafe, who shocked a
few teams to get this far but once the two teams starting playing, it
was no shock at all. Both teams hit the ball very well but it was a
seven run seventh inning that would prove to be the difference for
Street Kids as they would hold on to win 39-34. Terry Patesel, TJ
Jorgensen and Mike Bailey all led the way with six hits and all three
combined to drive in 14 runs. Tim Austin, Jay Jeffery and Tony
Hardiman added five hits each in the win as well.

The Kids were now in the championship game, a feat they have
now accomplished 17 out of 18 times this season. The only time
the Street Kids Softball team failed to reach the championship
game of a tournament in 2011 was the ASA National in Oklahoma
City. On Saturday, they waited for a few teams to battle it out and
in the end it was Tasers who took on SKS in the finals. This
tourney was unique, as there was no "if" game. So there was no
disadvantage to the losers bracket, just to reach the final game was
enough. For Tasers to win the title, they would normally have to
double dip SKS, but in this unique format, it was one game for the
title.  Street Kids came out strong, putting up nine runs, but using
all four home runs to do so. They would score six in the third but
Tasers came storming back, taking advantage of the poorest
defense the SKS team has put on the field in recent years, and
eventually took a large lead. The Kids made a few attempts at
comebacks, but again the defense gave Tasers several second
chances and like a good team that they are, they took advantage.
The Kids were down by 11 in the bottom of the seventh and with no
home runs to hit, they would have to rally. They started to do so, but
could only manage four runs, and lost to Tasers 30-23. Once again,
Street Kids finishes second in a tournament, but Tasers played well and deserved the win. Scott Martin led the way with five hits, while
Tim Austin added four hits in the loss.

"They hit well but we beat ourselves," said outfielder Joe Richard. "We made a lot of errors, and we hit some poor home runs, but you
gotta give credit to Tasers, they hit really well. But we all know the main reason we played today was to bring awareness with our pink
shirts. Having people come up to us and saying nice things about what we do, that was the real win today."

TJ Jorgensen (who led the tournament with an .895 average), Terry Patesel and Tim Austin joined five Taser players on the all-tourney
team, including Eric Miller, Jeff Griffin, Mike Ramza, Mike Curry and Geronimo Navarro. Griffin was named tourney MVP with an .826
average.

"This was not how we wanted to end our tourney season, but at
the same time, its a minor speed bump on the successful
tournament road we traveled this year," Jorgensen said. "If you
would have told me in February that we would reach the
championship game in 17 out of 18 tournaments this year,
including worlds and super worlds, I would have laughed. Its
really an amazing story for a team that has always put others
ahead of ourselves. We wanted to play in this tournament in
Mishawaka for one reason, and thats to show support for breast
cancer awareness. As competitors, we are upset we lost that
last game, but as Street Kids Care members, knowing that we
have inspired thousands of people over the years to make a
difference around them, today was truly a winning day for us."

Street Kids finish the tourney season with a record of 78-17.
They won nine tournaments, including the ASA "B" State title
and of course, finished second in almost every other event.
Some other notable wins for the tourney team including winning
the Flag Day title for the second straight season, winning the
July 4th Topeka tourney for the first time ever and also winning
the Kiracofe Upper division tourney for the first time.

The Kids (135-24 overall) still have about three weeks of
Elkhart fall league action before planning the annual SKS
banquet, which will take place around the first of December.