Evansville Thunderbolts gear up for President's Cup Finals
EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WEHT) — The Evansville Thunderbolts are preparing to make history in the President's Cup Finals.
Their path to the final round was rather unconventional and they're still two wins away from a championship.
Typically, when a teams finish the season 500, they are probably not the favorite to win the President's Cup Final, let alone make the game. However, the Thunderbolts did just that after taking down Peoria and Huntsville in the first two rounds.
Their challenge grows stronger as they take on Knoxville. But as the mountain grows taller, Evansville keeps climbing and never looking back on the past.
'I think we're a completely different team than we were during the regular season,' says goaltender Cole Cerci. 'We just found a way to pick it up another another gear. And, we're excited to, you know, get some revenge on these guys. And I think if anything, it just feels us even more to come out hot.'
'Playoffs is a wholly different season,' says head coach Jeff Bes. 'Everybody starts at zero. We believed in each other. We went through some, ups and downs like I expressed earlier, throughout the course of the season. You know, now we're about 18 games left in the season. We all talked about what we wanted to do. Yeah, we wanted to make plans, but we wanted to go to President's Cup final.'
'We all just, bear down and looked around the room and realized we had something special,' says center captain Matthew Hobbs. 'Like I said, chemistry and just belief in the locker room is really, propelled us, into some success here.'
The team has never been to the President's Cup Finals in their history. Evansville is just two wins away from the title. Game one begins on Wednesday, April 22 in Knoxville and game two will make it's way back to the Ford Center.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Yahoo
North using 'grit' as motivation ahead of Semi-State
EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WEHT) — The North Huskies, one of the most dominant teams in the Tri-State this season, believe they have what it takes to wear the crown in 4-a. 'We play a lot of grit,' junior Brooks Carroll said. 'We play tough. Our pitching does a lot for us. And we scrape enough runs to win ball games.' 'Yeah, we're a gritty ballclub,' head coach Jeremy Jones said. 'You know we're not pretty. You know we but we do a lot of little things. Correct. Whether it's bunting or slashing, hit and run, that type of stuff.' This tight knit group has the makings of a state championship team. After years of fighting to get out of the sectional just to come up short to Castle North is bound for the semi-state bringing with it loads of excitement. 'Obviously there's pressure, but I feel like with us it's just we're kind of going in there with house money,' Carroll said. 'You know, being in a spot where we haven't been before, it's, you know, screw it. Why not just go play with our head on fire and play hard and maybe scratch out a couple of wins, get us a gas field.' All year long the Huskies have sparked a new formula for winning dominant pitching. When scoring four or more runs this season north is a remarkable 20-0. But what matters the most is a key factor that doesn't pop up on the stat sheet. 'Their heart you know, and their ability to come together and be around each other and just find a way with two outs to get a hit,' said Jones. 'We had a situation on Saturday Braden Perry comes in second or third no outs, two one ball game, it was strike out, strike out flyball. And you know he came in to do a job, and thats been the story this season for us. We asl guys to perform at their best and hopefully well have more of the same on Saturday.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
New Photo of Travis Kelce Spark Taylor Swift Rumor on Tuesday
New Photo of Travis Kelce Spark Taylor Swift Rumor on Tuesday originally appeared on Athlon Sports. Travis Kelce and his girlfriend, Taylor Swift, are spending the bulk of the offseason in Southern Florida while the Kansas City Chiefs tight end prepares for the 2025 NFL season. Swift and Kelce were spotted dining together at Harry's Bar & Restaurant in West Palm Beach over Memorial Day Weekend. Last week, the 14-time Grammy winner and Kelce dined at Buccan restaurant in Palm Beach. While fans gushed over seeing them together again, the famous couple drew viral attention while attending Kelce's cousin's wedding in Knoxville, Tennessee, just two days later. Swift and the 35-year-old appeared to have a blast at the barnyard nuptials, happily posing with family members and fellow guests. In support of former NFL tight end Greg Olson's charity, Kelce attended his annual golf tournament in Charleston, South Carolina, which supports The HEARTest Yard Foundation on Monday. On Tuesday, Kelce was back in Miami and photographed while making his way to a workout. However, numerous fans noticed a pink color emerging from his bag that looked similar to the edge of Swift's "The Eras Tour Book." One woman posted, "HELLO IS THAT THE ERAS TOUR BOOK???" One fan replied, "WAIT I THINK SO." One person gushed, "Travis misses eras tour just as much as us 😭😭😭😭." Another person guessed, "He is probably bringing an autograph copy to someone at the gym." Another fan asked, "Is this for his trainer or something?" One X user joked, "Something to read while on the treadmill to make time go by faster." Another fan wrote, "very tayhusband of him." Kelce has another week to train on his own before returning to Kansas City for mandatory minicamp which kicks off on June story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 11, 2025, where it first appeared.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Yahoo
Highly Touted Star Running Back Sends Strong Message on Tennessee Football
Highly Touted Star Running Back Sends Strong Message on Tennessee Football originally appeared on Athlon Sports. One of the top running backs in the 2027 recruiting class was back in Knoxville, Tennessee this weekend. While talking about the visit with On3's Matt Ray, he couldn't stop saying great things about the Tennessee Volunteers. Advertisement 'This visit was just special,' four-star running back Tyson Robison told Ray. 'Just sitting in the position meetings and watching different things. Just talking to Coach Sims and Coach Heupel was just great. Coach Heupel just connects with players, and I love it.' Robinson suggested the more he is Knoxville, the more he likes the program, which now sits at or near the top of his school rankings. "High. High," Robinson said when asked where Tennessee is in his recruiting after the weekend. "They are very high for me." Tennessee Volunteers head coach Josh Heupel© Andrew Nelles / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images Robinson explained why every time he's been on Tennessee's campus has been great. Advertisement 'Each time here is just different,' Robinson added. 'Like my first time here, we talked about inside zone, and we just keep talking about more and more, like this time we talked about blocking schemes and triangle schemes. "Just coaching points that you can take and learn, so I think it is more beneficial to me.' Ray reported Friday that Robinson is already planning two more visits to Knoxville. The running back "hopes to return" to Tennessee's campus again in June. Robinson is also planning to be at Neyland Stadium for the matchup against the Georgia Bulldogs this fall. The 247 Sports composite rankings have Robinson rated as the No. 3 running back and No. 2 Mississippi prospect in the 2027 recruiting class. Advertisement The same rankings also have Robinson at No. 40 overall in the entire class. Related: Tennessee Pushing to Land Coveted Star Over Texas, Alabama and Michigan This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 7, 2025, where it first appeared.
