Majors club plans district tourney appearance

Based on history, it would have been safe to assume that getting blanked in the win column at the final tournament on the schedule would have been the end of the road for the Greybull majors all-star baseball team.

But that assumption would have been wrong.

Coach Brett Patterson and his club of primarily 11- and 12-year-olds are soldiering on, traveling to Powell for a game Tuesday night in preparation for an appearance at a district tournament next week in Riverton and Bridger Valley.

The club, which will go by the name of South Big Horn, opens with a pool play matchup against Green River Monday in Riverton.   Win or lose, they’ll head to Bridger Valley later in the week for games starting Thursday.  The field will be a loaded one, featuring all-star teams from Lovell (aka Big Horn), Cody, Green River, Lander, Powell, Riverton, Rock Springs and Bridger Valley.

“We’re definitely the underdog,” admitted Patterson. 

Big picture, though, it’s a win for the program just to be playing. The baseball season is usually wrapped up before the Fourth of July in south Big Horn County.  Patterson said his team didn’t qualify — it is going as an at-large qualifier.

“We’ve got a lot of guys who are hungry, that’s for sure,” he said. “The older guys are especially excited about the opportunity to go to district.  They’ve been bugging me to do it the last couple years, but my summer schedule never lined up to do it.  This year it finally does.”

The all-star team’s record stood at 4-4 heading into Tuesday night’s game in Powell.

“I’d be happy to make the semifinals (at the district tournament), but it’s going to be tough,” he admitted. “We’re pretty excited to see how it goes down there. We’ll be facing teams we haven’t seen before that are from a lot bigger towns.”