<\/p>\n
Six games, 12 days and over 2,700 miles.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what the Southwest Colorado Youth Baseball Senior All-Star team has been up to recently.<\/p>\n
After clinching the Colorado Senior State Tournament in Thornton last Tuesday, the squad of Cortez, Dolores and Dove Creek players had little time to waste, as they had to get to the Southwest Regional Tournament in Seguin, Texas in a hurry.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had to be down there at three o\u2019clock on Friday,\u201d said manager Tim Passell. \u201cAnd just barely getting back from Denver and having one day to get everything ready was pretty hectic.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Passell said that the frenzy actually made the players even more excited.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe kids loved it,\u201d he explained. \u201cIt was really exciting for them as we were just trying to figure out what we were going to do. But we ended up renting some minivans and getting on the road Thursday and driving halfway and getting hotel rooms for the night and then driving on in Friday to barely get there at three.\u201d<\/p>\n
The trip wouldn\u2019t have been possible, however, without generous help from the community. Passell said that the team received donations from all over the area, including aid from the players\u2019 family members, city and government departments and area clubs. He also thanked league president Nic McDonald, who he said helped plan the logistics of the excursion.<\/p>\n
The Seniors opened regional play on Saturday against the host team, New Braunfels Little League. They were tied 1-1 after one inning and knotted at three after three innings. However, the home squad tallied six runs in the fourth inning and tacked on another six in the sixth inning to pull away and win, 15-3.<\/p>\n
Facing elimination on Sunday, the Seniors were matched up against the Oklahoma representative. Derek Kibel started on the bump for the Seniors and pitched the maximum 95 pitches allowed before Payton Langston entered to close out the contest.<\/p>\n
The Seniors trailed 11-0 going into the bottom of the sixth inning, but they didn\u2019t give up. They rallied for two runs to extend the game to its full seven innings, but eventually fell, 12-2.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t get a good start in either game, really,\u201d said Passell. \u201cAnd then we ended up having to try and fight back in both games.\u201d<\/p>\n
Passell also noted how the change in climate affected the players, who weren\u2019t used to the wet, sticky, Texas humidity.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was tough, not only playing the teams from Texas and Oklahoma, but also playing in the heat,\u201d he explained. \u201cThe heat kind of zapped us all. It was really tough for our team with that climate, but those teams were polished, and we knew going in that they were going to be tough.\u201d<\/p>\n
After going 3-1 at the Colorado Senior State Tournament to claim the state title, the SWC Seniors dropped both contests in Seguin to finish with a 3-3 postseason record.<\/p>\n
However, Passell said that their postseason run and regional tournament appearance was one to remember.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese kids really enjoyed the whole experience,\u201d said Passell. \u201cEven from the start when we were just practicing, they were committed to winning to get to Texas. The kids had a blast and it\u2019s definitely going to be something to build on.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was fun getting them to buy in and know that they could do it,\u201d he continued. \u201cFor them to go in and say, \u2018Okay we can beat these guys, so let\u2019s do it.\u2019 And it was fun as a coach to see these kids\u2019 confidence level grow with each game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Southwest Colorado Youth Baseball Senior All-Star team falls in tourney<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":73411,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,44,80],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-73410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-dolores","tag-dove-creek"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73410"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=73410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}