13U Worland Baseball season underway

WORLAND - The season has begun for the 13U Worland baseball team and they have gotten off to a fast start. Their first two games of the season were on May 13 in Worland then on May 25-27 Worland played in the first annual Triple Play Academy "Battle of the Ring" tournament in Billings.

Worland went 1-1 in their two home games, beating Gillette and losing to the 406 Flyers, a team out of Billings, 11-1. In their victory over Gillette, Worland had to play the game on the Babe Ruth field, since Field 3 at Newell Sargent was rained out in the morning.

It was good practice for Worland, considering next year they'll be playing fulltime on the Ruth field.

"I was very satisfied with the way we pitched on the big field. I thought it was going to be tougher but they handled it pretty well. Same with the catcher throwing down to second base, I thought that was going to be another struggle but they did very well again. Kade [Weber] actually threw a runner out against Gillette," said Worland 13U coach Jerry Leyva. "It's good experience and one of our Casper tournaments will be nothing but those big fields. We're figuring it out and getting a feel for it."

In their second game, Worland played on Field 3, since the field conditions improved. Worland hung with the 406 Flyers for a stretch, but unfortunately, the Flyers' bats eventually got to them.

"Billings just hit the ball, they're a good hitting team. Jerry [Leyva Jr.] threw a good game, except for those two home runs and those combined for five runs. Otherwise, he threw a heck of a game. Kept trying to tell him to keep the ball down, belt high, fastball, but he found that out. I told him they're a good hitting team and that's bound to happen. We missed out on scoring a couple of runs and gave up those two bombs and that was the difference," said Leyva.

At the Battle of the Ring tournament in Billings, Worland went 3-2 and lost 8-7 by a walk-off hit to the Casper Crush. In their three wins Worland beat the Tornadoes 6-5, Gillette JR Riders 5-4 and the Triple Play Academy Cobras 9-6. Their other loss came by the Cobras 6-2 in pool play.

It has been a strong start for Worland but one area Leyva wants to continue improving on is their bats.

"We need to keep working on our bats. It's early and this is when we usually struggle with our bats. Our defense is solid and pitching has been great. We're going to focus on tee work and get a lot of live pitching in. That's a must if we're going to pick up our production on that end. We need to work on our discipline at the plate," said Leyva.