For the second year in a row, the Blue Jays from St. John's Episcopal School come up champions.

The Blue Jays beat the Red Sox, on July 1, to win the Spring Valley Athletic Association third-grade championship.

The boys fought hard to come from behind in all three playoff games, beating the Rangers, 16-10, in the first round and the Indians, 12-6, to advance to the championship game.

The players and coaches had nothing but props for head coach Mark Ferguson. Assistant coach Steve DeWolf said, "Mark really eclipsed expectations."

From the twice-a-week practices and pitching machine in Ferguson's backyard to his personal approach to motivating the kids, "Ferg put in miles and miles of effort and a heck of a lot of time."

DeWolf might have regretted that pitching machine. To encourage David Boruff to straighten out his swing, he bet the player $100 he couldn't hit him on the next at bat. Boruff took up the challenge: he hit the ball exactly straight and beaned DeWolf through a 2-foot-by-2-foot opening in the machine's protective netting.