[Photos courtesy of Amber Shoemake / The Leland Shoemake Foundation] Leland’s teammates, friends and coaches created the L7 Weenies team to play in the tournament and they hugged and prayed with Leland’s mom Amber Shoemake after they won the championship game and took first place in the 8U bracket.
L7 tourney raises funds for $3,000 scholarship
The Leland Shoemake Foundation’s second annual L7 Baseball Tournament was held recently with players from 6 to 14 years old taking part. The money raised from the tournament will fund a new $3,000 scholarship for Pike County High School students.
Leland’s friends and coaches put together a team just to play in the tournament called the L7 Weenies. The name for the team came from Leland’s favorite movie, the Sandlot. A boy in the movie says another child is an L7 weenie. In Leland’s first year of playing t-ball, he called coach Mark Saporita an L7 weenie, which was also Saporita’s favorite movie as a child. The team started in the middle and rose to the top, playing in the championship game to earn the title in the 8U age bracket. Leland’s friend and teammate Tucker Saporita hit two home runs in back to back at bats in the final game.
“It was such an emotional day. I couldn’t control my tears and I knew that my boy was there helping them take the win,” said Leland’s mother Amber Shoemake. “He’s still doing great things even though he isn’t here with us physically. These boys played so hard to win. Words can’t describe how much I love all of them. Mark Saporita and his family mean so much to us.”
The Leland Shoemake Foundation raised $7,500 at the tournament and will put away funds to continue to offer the tournament each year as well as outreach and support for members of the community who are in need. A scholarship for $3,000 will be presented to a senior next year with proceeds from the event.
“We can’t wait to present this scholarship in honor of our son next year. The community has continued to comfort us and support us in all that we do to honor our sweet boy. We are already making plans for next year’s tournament and hope to bring in even more and be able to put all of the proceeds into an even bigger scholarship,” said Amber. “This tournament was a huge success. We thank all of our sponsors and donors for making this possible. But we really have to thank all of the parents, coaches and kids who played in the tournament. There were so many amazing people out there who were helping to remember our Leland. We can’t thank everyone enough and we love all of you here in Pike County who continue to love us even though we are so broken. God has blessed us with such an amazing community!”
Amber said she is determined for the Leland Shoemake Scholarship to be the biggest one given in Pike County for years to come.
“I pray that this tournament gets bigger and bigger and that we can one day take every single penny we get at it and give it to a student,” she said.
“It was such an emotional day. I couldn’t control my tears and I knew that my boy was there helping them take the win,” said Leland’s mother Amber Shoemake. “He’s still doing great things even though he isn’t here with us physically. These boys played so hard to win. Words can’t describe how much I love all of them. Mark Saporita and his family mean so much to us.”
The Leland Shoemake Foundation raised $7,500 at the tournament and will put away funds to continue to offer the tournament each year as well as outreach and support for members of the community who are in need. A scholarship for $3,000 will be presented to a senior next year with proceeds from the event.
“We can’t wait to present this scholarship in honor of our son next year. The community has continued to comfort us and support us in all that we do to honor our sweet boy. We are already making plans for next year’s tournament and hope to bring in even more and be able to put all of the proceeds into an even bigger scholarship,” said Amber. “This tournament was a huge success. We thank all of our sponsors and donors for making this possible. But we really have to thank all of the parents, coaches and kids who played in the tournament. There were so many amazing people out there who were helping to remember our Leland. We can’t thank everyone enough and we love all of you here in Pike County who continue to love us even though we are so broken. God has blessed us with such an amazing community!”
Amber said she is determined for the Leland Shoemake Scholarship to be the biggest one given in Pike County for years to come.
“I pray that this tournament gets bigger and bigger and that we can one day take every single penny we get at it and give it to a student,” she said.
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