Foutch Baseball Club 16U
2014 Foutch 16U Season at a Glance US THEM Michigan Sharks (L) 6 9 Michigan Sharks (W) 9 5 Palacios Tailors (L) 4 14 Palacios Tailors (L) 7 9 Flushing (W) 5 2 Cats (W) 6 1 Portland (W) 6 1 Fenton (W) 12 0 Gladiators (L) 3 4 River Dogs (W) 6 0 River Dogs (W) 11 7 CA (W) 7 0 CA (W) 7 0 Mavericks (W) 5 3 Mavericks (W) 6 5 Oakland Reds (W) 7 6 MSA (W) 9 2 Monarchs (W) 6 2 Toledo (W) 14 2 Columbus (L) 0 8 Sharks (W) 11 4 Sharks (W) 10 7 Young Guns 15U (W) 12 2 Young Guns 15U (W) 8 7 LOB (W) 3 0 LOB (W) 7 0 Young Guns 16U (T) 2 2 Young Guns 16U (W) 4 2 Coldwater (W) 13 3 Michigan Bulls (L) 1 5 Indiana (W) 11 6 Illinois (W) 7 4 Young Guns (W) 4 2 Michigan Bulls (W) 3 1 Dallas Texas (L) 0 8 Northern Cal. (L) 2 8 Vehicle City Champions (4-0) GFBL 16u Champions (9-0-1) AABC Michigan State Champions (4-1) Black Swamp Elite Eight (4-1) AABC North Central Regional Champions (4-1) 2014 AABC Mickey Mantle World Series (27-9-1)
Coaching Staff Ben Almasy Mt. Morris HS Coach Almasy brings over twenty years of high school and summer coaching experience to the Foutch program. Ben has over 350 wins as a high school coach in the Flint Area. During his tenure as the Panther baseball skipper, coach Almasy has won five district titles, four league championships, and competed in four sweet 16 s. In his first season as the 16U manager for Foutch, Almasy s club won the areas first 16u AABC regional and earned a World Series bid to Frisco Texas. Craig Healey Clio HS Coach Healey will be in his second season at Foutch and third as the Clio HS baseball coach. At Clio, Craig has won a district and a league title over two seasons. Coach Healey will manage the pitching staff which, last year, finished the season with a sub four ERA and a strikeout to walk ratio of over 3 to 1. Last season, one of Craig s pitchers from Clio won the quarter and semifinal of the North Central Regional, which helped Foutch on its record setting AABC tournament run. Terry Franklin Lincoln-Alcona HS Terry Franklin comes to the team as a three year head coach with over twenty years of overall experience. Terry is a former SVSU player. His Alcona teams have won two league and one district title in his three year career. Coach Franklin will be in charge of the offense and running game this season.
In first year, Foutch's Strike Zone 16-under baseball team reaches Mickey Mantle World Series FLINT, MI The notion that baseball was declining in Flint and needed a revival was one that businessman Roger Foutch took to heart. The Flint baseball legend and member of the Greater Flint Sports Hall of Fame cultivated a group of area high school baseball coaches last fall and ended up with a coach (Mt. Morris' Ben Almasy) and staff and group of players that would comprise the first Foutch's Strike Zone 16-under travel baseball team. "Everything fell together this year," said Foutch, speaking Friday, July 25, from his Strike Zone baseball complex in Flint Township. "We formed a team with character and the results speak for themselves." In the first year of the team, made up of a roster of 18 kids from high schools in Genesee and Lapeer counties, Foutch's went 28-9-1, won league and state championships and won a regional title over the weekend to qualify for the Mickey Mantle World Series next week in McKinney, Texas. It's the first time a travel baseball team from Flint has reached the Mickey Mantle World Series. Foutch's Strike Zone opens the double-elimination tournament Wednesday against a team from South Plains, Oklahoma. "It's a good thing we're not playing them in football," joked Almasy. "In baseball, I think we can do well if we play solid defense. I've done some research (about the other teams) and some of these kids live on compounds for four months they eat and sleep baseball." Foutch has a long, illustrious history of involvement in Flint-area baseball. A 12-year player in the City Baseball League, Foutch went on to manage teams for more than three decades, winning 24 league championships and leading two 18-under teams (2001 and 2005) to national championships at the Stan Musial World Series.
"If it was anyone else, I wouldn't have touched it," Almasy said. "Instead of a bunch of decent teams in the area, we wanted to get one, solid team." The roster is made up of high school players from 12 different high schools from around the area, with a good concentration from Clio, Mt. Morris and Montrose. Almasy said his team doesn't do any one thing great, instead relying on contribution up and down the lineup. They have won 18 games after trailing in the final two innings, he said. "It's been timely hitting," Almasy said. "We don't have a guy hitting.400 but we have eight guys hitting in the.300s. Everybody's contributing and that's the key." Kearsley senior Jacob Lucius, who hits third in the lineup, said most of the players didn't know each other when the coaching staff brought them together. In the end, though, it's worked out. "You can't have a team without unity and we all get along and we're all great baseball players," Lucius said. "Never in my life have I thought that I would be playing with a team from Flint, Michigan, and we would get to play in the World Series. It's a feeling like no other, honestly. 6U