The Southern End Sluggers, a youth baseball team made up of players from Solanco, Lampeter-Strasburg, Conestoga Valley, Octorara and Pequea Valley, recently captured the Essex Express Baseball Father's Day Summer Classic.

"Last fall, we won three tournaments," said coach Nate Galbreath. "This tournament made it four in a row. We have kids of equal talent, so we bat all 12, and every kid gets their time on the bench."

The tournament was held in Essex, Md.

The Sluggers opened with a 12-1 Saturday morning win over the Owings Mills' Spartans. Later that evening, the Sluggers settled for an 8-8 tie against the Arlington All-Stars.

"The Saturday games were for seeding, so we went into the single elimination Sunday games as the second seed," Galbreath explained.

Sunday morning, the Sluggers defeated In the Dirt 8-1 and in the afternoon pulled out a 4-3, come-from-behind win over the Blue Chips to get to the finals. There the Sluggers defeated the top seed, Tripletown Aces, 4-2 to claim the tournament crown.

"It was a total team effort," said Galbreath. "We pitched well; made a lot of great plays defensively, including turning multiple double plays; and had some great throws home from the outfield to nail runners at the plate. Everyone put the ball in play, and we had very few strikeouts against some really good pitching," he added. "We had multiple extra base hits, and we ran the bases really well."