July 1, 2025
By Adam Burns
COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa — Everything came together at the right time for the Dallas Tigers.
The 17-year-old squad was down 10-0 in the third inning of the quarterfinals. The Tigers came back and won 14-13. The boys from Texas were down 2-0 in the seventh inning of the semifinal round. They won 3-2 in extras.
Call it resilience. Call it grit. Call it whatever you want.\
But when it came down to it, the second-seeded Tigers put all the pieces together to earn a special tournament victory, defeating No. 5 BlueChip 3-2 to capture the Pathway Omaha Upperclass Platinum Championship on Monday afternoon at Iowa Western Community College.
“We had to battle. We earned it,” Tigers shortstop Coleman Hedgecock said. “We had to come back in multiple games to earn this. We were gritty and we played hard to make it happen.”
Tigers coach Tripp Cecil was pleased with his team’s 6-0 Pathway showing.
“They never quit,” Cecil said. “They were down in the first game and came back and won it. Down in the second game, they came back and won it. Down in the third … They won it. First bracket play game; they were down 10-0 and came back and won. Semifinals, down the whole game, but came back and won it.
Then, of course, in the championship game, we were ahead most of the game, but BlueChip tied it up late and we finished it off.”
The Tigers tallied a run in both the first and second innings of the championship game — courtesy of Hedgecock’s sacrifice fly and Charlie Keeney’s RBI single — before BlueChip knotted the score with a pair of runs in the top of the sixth.
Extra innings might’ve been in the cards for the semifinals, a 3-2 win over the Seattle Select, but not in the title game.
After singles by Max Moss and JR Deflanders, Moss, who stole second and advanced to third on Deflanders’ single, scored on a wild pitch for the eventual game-winning run in the bottom of the sixth.
“We found a way to win,” Cecil said. “That’s what mattered, but we saw some strong arms today.”
The strong arm in the title game was BlueChip lefty Nik Bielaczyc, who allowed three earned runs on eight hits with one strikeout and three walks.
For the Tigers, Hunter Hicks produced a quality start for the Tigers with 5 1/3 innings of work, with a one strikeout, four hits allowed and two earned runs allowed. Bobby Barrow threw the final 1 2/3 innings, surrendering just one hit and walking one.
Deflanders led the offense with two hits and a stolen base, while Titus Hiebsch (triple), Nate Kinder, Walker Steele also each had a hit.
“The resilience piece was the biggest part for me,” Cecil said. “The boys are tough and found ways to win this weekend.”
The Tigers were big fans of the Pathway experience.
“It was nice coming out here and experiencing the College World Series and playing some teams all over,” Hedgecock said. “It was great to come to this college field and be seen by college scouts and everything like that. It was great all around.”
“This is our first time here,” Cecil said. “But we really enjoyed it. After one of our games, some (college) coaches talked to our boys. We played a team from Seattle, Australia, Wisconsin and Utah—kids from all over. So it was great to see a variety of teams. It was a great tournament. I bet we think about coming back.”
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