Shannon’s seeks little league title

As Shannon’s Heating and Plumbing gears up for the biggest game of the season tonight, any word but “pressure” is in their vocabulary.
“They’re all pretty excited,” said Shannon’s co-coach Clint Barton. “But you know, they’re nine to 10-year-old boys and we just want them to have fun, no pressure at all.”
The Fort Frances squad will face the International Falls Elks at 5:15 p.m. at Tony Rizzo Field in what could be the final game of the six-team double-knockout playoff.
The Elks would have to beat Shannon’s twice to claim the title.
They opened the playoffs last Tuesday with a 6-5 win over Moose Lodge in extra innings. Then they beat the Elks 12-10 .
In related news, the final two of the three local 11-12 boys’ teams saw their seasons end last week. Super One were tagged with their second loss of the double-knockout Friday while the Lions were ousted by Northern Lumber 5-1 on Thursday to finish their playoff run at 1-2.
“We hung in there. We had guys on base—if we could have got that one hit,” said Lions co-coach Dave Sande on their last two games.
The other 11-12 team—pine-woodsports.com—had been eliminated earlier in the week.
No matter how things finish up tonight, Sande said the first-year Fort Frances teams improved dramatically over the two-month season and are looking forward to next year.
“There’s been a big improvement here,” he remarked. “We’re going to advertise [for players] a lot earlier next time.”