A 13-and-under baseball team from Houston won the United States Specialty Sports Association (USSSA) Missouri AA State Championship in a tournament June 21-23 at Kansas City.
Houston went 5-1 to top the event’s 21-team field. The Tigers started out with a 10-4 loss to Driving Force Baseball (of Webb City) in a Friday game, but then downed Fox Sports Sox (of Joplin) 8-4 later the same day.
Houston then beat the vaunted KC Pirates 6-5 on Saturday before earning the championship with three wins on Sunday, including a huge 8-7 defeat of the Webb City Redbirds, an 11-6 triumph over Velocity Academy (of Belton) and a 9-4 victory over the 417 Tomahawks (of Springfield).
Coming into the tournament, the KC Pirates were the top-ranked 13U squad in Missouri and the Webb City Redbirds were No. 3.
Every player on Houston’s roster was nominated to play in the Missouri/Kansas All Star Showcase at the end of July, and 10 were nominated to play for Team Missouri in the USSSA 13U Nationals July 31 through Aug. 4 in Kansas City.
The United States Specialty Sports Association is a volunteer, sports governing body and a nonprofit organization based in Viera, Fla. Detailed information is available online at usssa.com.
HOUSTON 2024 13U BASEBALL ROSTER
Griffin Aaron
Trapper Adey
Elijah Carter
Lucas Casas
Jasper Hawkins
Karson McCain
Marcus Posant
Jasper Rodgers
Jackson Rust
Blake Sanders
Stryker Sloan
Gage Smith
Jude Smith
Tucker Venn
Head coach: Dustin Smith
Assistant coaches: Conaley Aaron, Dave Rust
