Greybull to host district tourneys next week

With district majors and minors tournaments on tap for next week, Greybull is about to be overrun by Little League players, coaches and fans from across the state.

In addition to the two Bandit teams from the South Big Horn Little League, the tournament is expected to attract 10 majors teams and seven minors teams for pool play Tuesday through Thursday leading into bracketed tournament play Friday and Saturday.

On the majors side, the Bandits open with a game against Riverton Wednesday, July 9 at 10:30 a.m. before facing North Big Horn in the 3:30 p.m. contest Thursday, July 10. Other teams in the field include Cody, Powell, Lander, Bridger Valley, Green River, Afton, Rock Springs and Pinedale.

The Bandit minors will be one of eight teams in their tournament, with games against Bridger Valley Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. and Riverton Thursday at 2 p.m.

Curtis Johnson, president of the South Big Horn Little League, said it’s been quite an undertaking to host two tournaments of this size and magnitude.

“But we’ve had good support from businesses and other outside players and coaches,” he said. “The logistical side has proven to be the biggest challenge — things like lining up camper trailers so umpires have a cool place to go between games and finding people to keep score, maintain the fields, run the concessions, that sort of thing.

“If anyone wants to help, we’ll certainly find a place for them,” he said. 

To this point, all Little League games have been played on the west field of the Art Schutte Sports Complex. The east field has been unplayable due to offseason sprinkler repairs and late-arriving sod, but players practiced on it for the first time Monday night and it should be ready to go for the tournament.

“We’re getting it cleaned up,” said Johnson.

After districts, the top teams advance to the state tournament, which will be held later this month in Lovell.

Cody tournament

After successful runs at their respective interleague tournaments held recently in Powell and Lovell, the South Big Horn Little League teams did not enjoy the same level of success in Cody.

Facing a higher level of competition, each team went 0-4.

“It was tough,” said Edgar Hernandez, who coached the minors.

The club lost pool play games to Cody, Powell and North Big Horn on Friday — scores and stats were not available — before getting eliminated by the Cubs 27-6 on Saturday morning.

“It was a good learning for us all, especially for me as a coach,” Hernandez said. “There are a lot of things we need to work on.  When you’re playing teams like Otto and Thermopolis, like we do during the regular season, there’s not much hitting and a lot of walks and wild pitches.

“Going to a tournament like this one, Powell, Lovell and Cody all had their best pitchers on. They were more selective at the plate and got a lot of hits. When the ball was hit to us, we didn’t always know what to do, which is something we should have been working on all year.

“Those teams just played better than we did.”

While they didn’t earn any wins, the minors didn’t leave Cody emptyhanded.  Four players — Levi Hernandez, Kai Landers, Lane Collingwood and Cruz Allen — earned medals for good sportsmanship.

The majors had an equally rough Friday, losing to Cody 16-0 and North Big Horn 14-3, but played two very competitve games on Saturday, losing to Powell by scores of 3-0 and 9-6.

In the first Powell game, the Bandits were credited with just three hits across six innings. Kru Keisel doubled while Jade Julson and Korbin Stewart had base hits.

The Bandits got their bats going in the second game, pounding out 10 hits, but were unable to overcome early deficits of  5-0 after two and 6-1 after three.

“We played pretty good  ball in all four games,” said Will Houchin, the team’s coach. “It was a good test for us going into regionals and what we’ll see there.

“Cody, Powell and North Big Horn were on top of their games.”