Quad City Heat 9U Team: World Series Sweet Sixteen

Congratulations to the Quad City Heat 9U Team for a terrific World Series in Orlando this past week. The team earned the honor of making it into the "Sweet Sixteen" during the tournament. Thirty-two teams qualified to play in Orlando; only the top 16 teams advanced to the Sweet Sixteen during the tournament.

With temperatures well into the 90s - typical Orlando weather - the team faced some tough competitors. But two wins against teams from Puerto Rico and Texas - and a tie game - propelled the Heat into the Sweet Sixteen, right along with some of the best teams in the country.

The Heat's final ranking was 13th after a loss to the Florida Pokers. The Charlotte (N.C.) Megastars won the overall title.

Great job kids! The Quad Cities was well-represented.

The Final Countdown!

Opening day of the 9U Elite World Series is one week from today - Sunday, August 2nd!

The competition will be tough but we're psyched! The majority of the teams are from the South; there are two other teams from the Midwest (Ohio and Michigan).

See our latest stats on the USSSA web site here.

Practice, Practice, Practice

We've finished with our local games but the season's far from over! Practice still goes on, of course.

We play our first game in Orlando August 2nd!

New uniforms are in as are our trading pins. The kids are excited.

Thanks to everyone for their help with donating funds to the team whether through a cash gift or the purchase of a cupcake. Every little bit counts!

Firecracker Classic Win

Congratulations to the team for a first-place finish at the Firecracker Classic held in Milan over the Fourth of July weekend. The team also achieved its 50th individual game win this season during this tournament. It was a great way to wind up our local tournament season.

Orlando is next!

50/50 Raffle Tonight at River Bandits Game

The team will be at the River Bandits game tonight - Thursday, July 2. We'll be handling the 50/50 raffle. Thanks River Bandits!

Support the 9U Heat and the River Bandits

We will be working the concessions at the Quad Cities River Bandits game this Thursday evening. A portion of the proceeds will go to the 9U Heat. The game against Burlington starts at 7 p.m. Thank-you River Bandits for the opportunity!

For ticket information click below.

River Bandits

Great Job Kids!

We're very proud of the team's performance in Des Moines over the weekend. The team went undefeated Friday and Saturday and entered Sunday's play as first seed. This was a great accomplishment in and of itself as they had to defeat the very tough "Sticks" team from Waukee.

Sunday started with a victory over the Grandview Stars landing the team in the final four, but the Heat was not able to pull off a second victory over the Sticks in a subsequent game. The Sticks went on to win the championship over the Mariners while the Heat settled for 4th place in a close game (13-12) against the Urbandale Mudcats that was called in the 5th due to time-limit rules.

The weekend started with high temperatures and ended as a windy dustbowl!

A highlight was the state championship win by the QC Heat's 13AA team. Excellent! Congratulations!

State Championship Games in Des Moines

The Iowa State Championship is being held in Des Moines this weekend. The 9U Heat first plays tonight (Friday) at 6 p.m. The next game is tomorrow at 2 p.m. Bring on The Heat!

Double Double Trouble

You are seeing double! The team has two sets of twins: Travis and Trevor (left) and Ian and Connor.

Little Sisters Rock!

If you hang around ballparks much, you'll see little girls wearing t-shirts that say, "I have no life - my brother plays baseball." Our bunch of little sisters seem to be OK with Big Brother being a baseball player. They find lots to do to keep themselves busy; here's a reading session that later deteriorated into a soccer match.

Gumball Rally

It goes without saying that baseball players have to chew on something during games or they just can't play. Our team's chew of choice is gumballs. Mrs. Kane keeps them well supplied, and if team spirit is sinking, out come the gumballs and morale improves immediately. One gumball is never enough, as Tony proves in this picture.

His 200th Pitch!

The boys love batting practice. They love to swing their favorite bats, Big Blue and Big Cheese, at all the balls. Coach can throw them; then they beg for more. But at the ripe old age of 46, throwing 200+ pitches in batting practice is hard on an old man like Coach. He's half proud and half ashamed that pretty soon most of the kids will be throwing harder than he does anyway!

Here's the proof of the final trading pin design!

Duel at the Diamonds

The team finished first in a rain-shortened 10U tournament over the weekend: Duel at the Diamonds in Rock Island. The team outscored their opponents 22-2.

The Iowa State Championship tournament is this weekend in Des Moines.

Hardcore Baseball Classic Champs!

2009 Hardcore Classic Baseball Champs: The Quad City Heat!

The tournament was held over the weekend in Muscatine. After two days of baseball and six games, the win went to the Heat 7-5 over the Muscatine Muskies. Six teams from the Quad-City area competed.

Trading Pins

We're working on creating a special baseball trading pin for the World Series. It's customary to trade pins with players/teams during the tournament.

Here's one of the proposed designs (see left).

Tournament in Muscatine This Weekend

We play a 9U tournament in Muscatine this weekend - June 13-14.

Game times:

10:00, noon and 2:00 on Saturday. Triple-header!

Game Tonight at Knights Field

The team plays tonight at 5:45 at Knights Field in Davenport against the Rams from Port Byron, IL.

They will also play on Thursday at 5:45 (June 11) agains the Aledo Knights, a 10U team ranked second in Illinois 10AA.

Cheer us on! All games are free and open to the public.

Great Job QC Heat!

The Quad City Heat 9U team successfully battled a field of twelve 10U teams over the weekend, advancing to the championship game. The team was victorius in every game leading up to the final duel between the Heat and Bombers from Morris, IL. Final score was 7-2, Bombers. Overall weekend record for the 9U Heat was 4-1.

Congratulations to the Bombers and the Heat!

Next weekend the team heads to the 9U open tournament in Muscatine.

Rain Delay

We'll play today (Saturday) starting at 2:00 on the QC Heat home fields on 35th St. in Davenport behind the Knights of Columbus.

Weekend Game Schedule

We play at our home field this weekend in Davenport. Come cheer us on! Knights Field is located on 35th St. between Marquette and Harrison (behind the Knights of Columbus). Games are free and there is no charge for parking.

We're playing against 10U teams (instead of 9U) this weekend to get us ready for the tough competition we'll face in Orlando.

Game times are:

Saturday 12:30 (against the Bombers)
Saturday 2:15 (against the QC A's)
Sunday 10:45 (against Team Davenport)

Bake Sale!

The team will be holding a bake sale tonight - June 3 - at the WalMart in Davenport on Elmore Road.

We've also set up a PO Box for any donations, which are tax deductible since the Quad City Heat is a nonprofit organization. We'll send a receipt for your records.

Donations for any amount are welcome and truly appreciated and can be sent to:

Quad City Heat
PO box 3726
Davenport, IA 52808