It was hot, at least until shortly before the totally unforecast rain hit down at Hibbs-Hooten in the 4th and final game of Day 1 Pool Play at the 16-18 yo Sr. Babe Ruth State Tournament. Wellington has “2” teams in the “8” team event that runs through Sunday and after the first day of Pool Play, the records look like this:

Wellington Host Team  0-1
Walnut Ark Valley (Wgtn) 0-1
Parsons 0-1
Independence 0-1

Liberal 1-0
Cottonwood Valley 1-0
Junction City 1-0
Abilene 1-0

Walnut Ark Valley, made up mostly of Wellington boys took to the field around 4pm Thursday afternoon vs a very talented Junction City team. Junction City jumped out early on the local lads with 4 runs in the 1st. Wellington had opportunities shortly thereafter to narrow that margin significantly but it just didn’t happen unfortunately. Errors plagued the local group and they couldn’t be overcome in the end, final score Junction City 8 Wellington 4. Isaac Hilt was Walnut Ark Valley's MVP for game 1, Hayden Baker received the WOW Award. Congrats to both of these young men!

The Opening Ceremonies followed and then Host Team Wellington took the field in Pool Play game 4 to take on Abilene, also a very talented team that displayed good offensive and defensive skills. That game ended unfortunately with the locals on the shy end of 1-19 score after about a 45 minute rain delay. DeAndre Washington was Wellington's MVP for game 1, Julian Jimenez received the WOW Award. Congrats to these two young men as well!.

There is still time for redemption, the beauty of pool play tournaments is the top 4 finishers go into the final championship day with a clean slate, single elimination, winner take all type of thing. There are 2 pool play games remaining for each team – it probably is imperative to win out for those that started with a loss to have a shot at the top 4 for championship bracket play on Sunday so no one is out of this hunt just yet. We will keep you updated the best we can for sure. The Walnut Ark Valley team will take on Parsons today at 3PM and then at 5:30PM, the Wellington HOST Team will battle against Independence – good luck to both of them!!

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State Tournament action gets underway today (Friday) for two other Wellington Babe Ruth/Cal Ripken teams. Our District Champion 10U Baseball boys who outscored their opponents in 5 games at the district tournament by the cumulative score of 64-9, will begin action this afternoon at their State Tournament in Harper.

POOL PLAY
Friday July 14: Wellington vs Cottonwood Valley 4:00PM
Saturday July 15: Wellington vs Lakin 6:00PM
Sunday July 16: Wellington vs Pittsburg 5:00PM

BRACKET PLAY (Top 4 finishers)
Monday July 17 (Single Elimination)
Begins at 12:00PM
10 YO State Champion will advance to Regional Play in Sterling, CO (July 20-25)

State Tournament action also gets underway today (Friday) for our 15 yo Babe Ruth team in Peabody.

POOL PLAY
Friday July 14: Wellington vs Chanute 2:30PM
Saturday July 15: Wellington vs Cottonwood Valley (Host) 7:30PM
Sunday July 16: Wellington vs Liberal 3:30PM

BRACKET PLAY (Top 4 finishers)
Monday July 17 (Single Elimination)
Begins at 10:00AM
15 YO State Champion will advance to Regional Play in Junction City (July 26-30)

Good Luck to the 10 yo’s and 15 yo’s as their action gets underway today and good luck to both of Wellington’s 16-18 yo’s down at Hibbs-Hooten…get ‘er done gentlemen!!

Side Note: Wellington’s 9 yo’s will be heading to Garden City next weekend for State Tourney action there…more about that next week!!

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