Majors’ season ends at district tournament
The South Big Horn Little League All-Stars didn’t get the storybook ending they were seeking at last week’s District 1 Majors Tournament in Bridger Valley.
A first-time qualifier, the club was unable to overcome nerves and inconsistent fielding, losing to the Lander Valley All-Stars 18-1 on Thursday and to the Powell All-Stars 16-6 on Friday.
“We definitely ran into some good teams,” said Brett Patterson, the team’s manager. “Nerves were an issue, too.
“Our kids were experiencing that environment for the first time and it was a big change for them.”
The highlights were few and far between in the matchup with Lander. The Bandits mustered just four singles, off the bats of Kayson Herebia, Colt Collingwood, Wyatt Kunkel and Kade Julson.
“We were putting our bat on the ball -- they were just going right to their defenders,” said Patterson. “It seemed like they were always in the right place at the right time.”
The Bandits scored their only run in the second inning.
After being blanked in the first, Lander plated five in the second, sixth in the third and seven in the fourth.
Korbin Stewart, Jesse Craft and Marshall Brown handled the pitching chores for the Bandits, who certainly weren’t helped by four errors in the field.
Friday’s matchup with Powell started much better. The Bandits led 4-3 going after two, but Powell batted around in the third, scoring 10 times.
“The third and fourth inning blues were an issue for us all season,” said Patterson. “We’d start well, but then, for whatever reason, we’d fall apart at that point of games.
“We couldn’t get past it.”
South Big Horn was charged with eight errors which certainly impacted the pitching line of Brendyn DeShazer. He worked three innings, giving up 13 hits and 13 runs, but only five of those runs were earned. Colt Collingwood mopped up in the fourth, giving up three.
At the plate, Kade Julson and Tanner Dunlap led the South Big Horn attack with two hits apiece. Kayson Herebia, Jack Olmstead, Noah Blakely, Collingwood and DeShazer each had one.
The Bandits were credited with seven stolen bases.
“It’s hard to win when you have eight errors,” said Patterson. “A lot of them were silly errors, too. And they often came at about the worst time, when the other teams had people on the bases.”
While disappointed in the outcome, Patterson kept it in the proper perspective. “It was a great season for us,” he said. “This was their first time playing All Stars. It was definitely a learning experience and I’m excited for the future.”
Patterson said most of this year’s team will be too old to play majors ball next year. If they want to continue to play, they will need to either form a Senior Babe Ruth team or hook on with a team in a neighboring community.
“Hopefully we’ll have enough to have our own team,” he said, adding that he’d like to coach them if that’s the case.