Worland Cal Ripken 10-U struggles at Regional tournament

WORLAND – Worland’s Cal Ripken 10-U baseball team found itself in a pickle over the weekend.

The strong run at the end of the season that delivered Worland its second straight state championship a couple of weeks ago abruptly came to an end as the team competed in the 2015 Cal Ripken 10-U Pacific Northwest Regional Tournament held in West Linn, Oregon.

Worland opened the tournament Thursday, July 23 with two pool games – dropping the first to Meridian, Idaho 11-1 and falling in the second game to host West Linn by a score of 9-7.

The struggles continued into the second day of pool play Friday, July 24 as Worland dropped another pair of games.

The first was a 19-0 loss to Kennewick, Washington and the second was a 16-1 loss to Willamette Valley South, Oregon.

Kennewick went on to play Meridian in the championship game Saturday, winning 16-5 to punch its ticket to the Cal Ripken 10-U World Series in Jonesboro, Arkansas August 8-15.

Coach Jerry Leyva said there were a few changes the team struggled with, including playing on an all-turf field and also the overall skill level of the field of teams.

“These teams were well prepared – 12 deep, 12 strong. They could hit the ball,” Leyva said. “Thursday night we had a really good game against the host team. We were down 9-1, we came back and scored six runs and they beat us 9-7 – we just fell a little bit short.

“All in all, they just know how to swing the bat. There can be no mistakes. If you make mistakes, it costs you a game.”

Leyva continued, “I think some of our kids couldn’t believe the talent at that age. We sat there and watched a few games and we were just kind of in awe. They just went out there and played their game, they gave it their best shot.”

This is the second year in a row Worland has made it to the Regional tournament, but both trips have ended without a win.

Having seen the best teams in the region the past two summers, Leyva and the rest of the team have obtained a better understanding of exactly how high the bar has been set and what they need to work on if they want to find more success past the state level.

“At the end of the last game, we got together and we as coaches talked. We know in Wyoming we can afford to make some of the mistakes we did, but at this level we cant. We sat the team down and told them we’ll build from here. We won’t start over, we’ll build from right here and keep moving up. I saw 100-percent from the beginning of the summer all the way through the tournament from all of these kids,” Leyva said Monday. “We’re progressing, we’re moving up. But now we’ve got to work harder and that’s what it’s going to take. You’ve got to work on every single little thing to become the team you want to be and I think they found that out themselves. You can ask every one of the kids and they’ll tell you what we need to do and where we need to be to play at that level.”