All-Stars playing at district tourney in Bridger Valley

Making its first district tournament appearance in decades, a team of all-stars from the South Big Horn County Little League suffered a 11-4 defeat at the hands of the Green River All-Stars in a game played Monday in Riverton.

“We looked pretty good, but the boys were nervous,” said Coach Brett Patterson.  “I think the stage of district play rattled them a little bit.  Several told me before the game they were nervous.

“Hopefully when we play our second game, they’ll have that out of their system.”

The game started well for the Bandits, who plated three in the top of the first.  A pair of walks set the stage for run-producing doubles by Colt Collingwood and Kade Julson. 

But Green River responded with five in its half of the inning, and after setting down the Bandits in order in their half of the frames, pushed across two more in the second and one in the third to move ahead 8-3.

The Bandits produced just two hits the rest of the way, which were doubles by Ashtun Winkler and Kayson Herebia.

Jack Olmstead, Korbin Stewart and Herebia handled the pitching chores for the Bandits.  

“We had some pretty costly errors in the field,” said Patterson, adding that they came at the worst possible times when Green River had men on base.  

Patterson said he hopes for a better outcome today (Thursday, July 11) when his club faces the Lander All-Stars in its second and final game of pool play.  Bridger Valley is hosting the tournament, which continues with single-elimination play on Friday and Saturday.

“”It’ll be win or go home when it comes to that,” said Patterson.  “We’d like to win it all, of course, but realistically, we’re hoping we can play into late Friday or Saturday morning.”

Win or lose, the team is gaining valuable experience.

“It’s a pretty big deal to them,” said Patterson. “Even though we lost our first game, it’ll all turned out pretty well so far. We’ve got a lot of community support, a lot of parent support and a lot of sponsor support. We’re thankful for it all.”

With the loss to Green River, the Bandit All-Stars saw their record drop to 4-6.