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All-star team closes out season
The 2007 Elmore County 10U Cal Ripken All Star's (Tigers) have returned from the state tournament, showing strong but failing to place.
The team started its season June 15 at the Meridian Dairy Days Invitational Tournament. Led by Coach Rick Scott, Assistant coaches Tim Petersen and Eric Burke, they went 1-3, losing to Meridian 6-5, Fruitland 4-1, beating East Boise 7-5, and finally losing to Twin Falls 19-3.
Coach Scott was satisfied because "this was the first tournament trying to combine players from three teams into one and get them to play like a team that had played together all season, and iron out set fielding positions and batting line-up. They played well and we noted several changes to make to benefit the team."
They then finished second in the Mountain Home Invitational Tournament June 21-23. They opened up with a loss to Fruitland 6-2, and then smashed East Boise 18-2. The next day they hammered Meridian 13-4. Fruitland beat them again for the championship 11-0.
The Elmore County All Stars then traveled to the Twin Falls Invitational on June 28-30. After tromping the Pocatello River Cats 11-4, the Twin Falls Cowboys 13-2, and the Blackfoot Bronco's 18-5, the Tigers came out of the Pool Bracket with the number one seed as the only undefeated team. In the playoff bracket they lost to the Pocatello Hawgs 13-1 eliminating them from further competition. The Tigers finished 5th out of 13 teams.
These tournaments were only precursors working toward the Cal Ripken State Tournament held in Jerome from July 8-11. The state tournament drew teams from as far north as Latah County to Meridian to Twin Falls. MVP's were selected for each game by the opposing teams and winners received a MVP T-shirt.
The Tigers were out classed by Jerome North-Side losing 15-1. MVP was Zach Petersen for pitching. They then lost to Meridian 15-5 with Alex Burke selected as MVP for pitching. They came back for the third game that night under the lights to beat Caldwell 11-8. Caldwell selected Jesse Cobos as MVP for catching, noting "he shut them down on stealing bases." The next day the Tigers lost to Idaho Falls after 8 hard fought innings by a score of 4-5. The MVP for that game was Zach VanGundy (9 years old) for his catches in the outfield. They then lost an error ridden game to Latah County 26-13. Latah picked Jacob Ryan as MVP for his consistent play in centerfield.
It had been about three years since a 10U team from Elmore County has won a game in the state tournament, so this year's team has matched that record and will look to break it next year, Scott said.
"Even with the hard losses, the main goal of the team was a success, to teach the kids new skills, team concept and to put it into practice," Scott said. "My goal as coach is to teach kids what they need to know to play high school ball. All the kids did well and no one can go away saying they did not learn anything and improve."
"With all the bad publicity kids' sports get these days, it was nice to see parents and kids from different teams, teams that were rivals during the regular season, come together as one team and go through the ups and downs together and support each other! We had a blast!
"There were four 9-year-olds on the team and even though they got the least play time, they gained more experience for next year and their parents were great. The 9-year olds were Seth Scott, Cody Mills, Nicholas Dealey and Zach Van Gundy. They played as hard as the 10-year olds."
Alex Burke had the highest overall batting average with .575, followed by Zach Petersen with .500, Brady Smith .487, Zach VanGundy and Noah Valerio at .487 and Cody Mills with a .412 average. All those same players had a .524 or better On Base Percentage.
The 10U team thanked its sponsors who made the expense for all the tournaments and uniforms possible: "B" Transfer, Inc; JT's Auto Repair, Mountain Home Auto Parts; Big Sky Oil Co., C-B Rentals; Bob's Carpet; Lott Construction; Leo's Appliance and Service, and the various parents and other supporters.
"We must thank the parents for all their time, expense and enthusiasm," said Scott. "Together they provided transportation to get the kids to all practices, games and transportation, and provided drinks and fruit during the games to keep the kids energized and hydrated."