Senior team falls to Mustangs in season debut

The return of senior-level play and a pitcher’s duel at the minors level highlighted the opening day of the South Big Horn Little League baseball season. 

All 10 of the league’s teams were in action Saturday at the Art Schutte Sports Complex, where the T-ball and coach-pitch contests led off before giving way to the older, more competitive teams in the afternoon.

The league’s rosters consist of approximately 120 kids from the Greybull and Basin areas.  Otto continues to run its own program, drawing players from the Burlington area.

Seniors

The Legion field was buzzing like it hadn’t in some time for a matchup between Greybull’s new Senior Little League squad and the Lovell Mustang C team.

“It was nice to have a team back in Greybull again,” said manager Chris Dunlap, whose 13-player roster included a mix of kids who either played majors last year or took the year off because Greybull didn’t field a team.

“Our age group (for Senior Little League) is 13 to 16, so we’re pretty young,” Dunlap said. “Our kids who played majors last year, they’re just turning 13. We have a couple 14s, and a decent number of 15s, but no one who is 16 yet.”

Game one did not go well for the hosts, as the Mustangs plated five runs before the Bandits recorded the first out and cruised from there to a 20-4 win.

Brendyn DeShazer, William Harlow and Carter Dunlap handled the pitching cores. Harlow fanned seven Mustang batters.

But the Bandits’ sticks were silent. On a day they struck out 14 times, Tanner Dunlap was credited with their only hit, that being a single.

“Even though the score got away from us, the kids stayed in it and hustled, which was nice to see,” said Dunlap. “We played a pretty talented team; the Lovell coach told me they had quite a few 16-year-olds.

Dunlap said he sees opportunities for his team to be more competitive, citing upcoming games against Thermopolis, which is “a new organization,” and Worland, “which is mostly 13- and 14-year-olds.

“We’ll get some more games added,” he said. “The biggest thing for us is just getting more of the rust knocked off.”

The senior Bandits are scheduled to play the Lovell Mustang C again Tuesday, May 13. Start time in Cowley is 6 p.m.

Majors

The SBHLL’s majors team showed promise in its opening game of the season, a 7-2 loss to the Lovell Yankees.  

The game was competitive until the top of the fourth, when the Yanks produced five runs to notch the win.

Starter Korbin Stewart pitched two strong innings, giving up two runs on two hits while striking out six.  Quaide Houchin blanked the Yankees in the third, but he and Joey Campos ran into trouble in the fourth when the Yanks plated five.

Houchin led the hit parade, going 2-for-2 with an inside-the-park home run. Other Bandits with base hits included Kingston Schedler, Jayden Winkler, Kade Julson, and Baeden Weis-Romain.

The Bandits are scheduled to host Otto in a 7 p.m. game today (Thursday, May 8).

Minors

The final game of the day featured a matchup of Greybull’s two minors teams — one managed by Curtis Johnson, the other by Edgar Hernandez.

Team Hernandez eked out the 2-1 win, making a pair of second-inning runs stand up behind the pitching of Lane Collingwood and Kai Landers, who each completed two innings.

Arrabella Nelson and James Tanner were each credited with a hit.

Team Johnson got two solid innings of mound work from Conner DeShazer and Jace Davison along with hits by Asher Lindgren, DeShazer and Crandall Whitaker.