By GANNON HANEVOLD
Moapa Valley Progress
The Moapa Valley Little League baseball season has come to an end. Last week, the championship game for the majors was played between the Braves and Angels. The Angels are led by Head Coach Casey Davis while the Braves’ Head Coach is Jerid Matheson.
“The team is feeling very confident after last week’s win,” said Coach Davis prior to the game.
“They’re anxious and excited and a little bit jittery,” said Coach Matheson about the Braves
For the season, Coach Davis said his team had done well.
“We started out slow as far as wins and losses, but we just try to focus on development,” he said. “Even when you play well, sometimes you lose, and the other way around.”
Davis said the team emphasized a positive attitude all year. Throughout the season team members had repeated a quote by Yogi Berra, “Baseball is 90% mental, and the other half is physical.” Davis said there was not one exclusive moment this season but rather, “Every game somebody else just got a little better.”
The Angels batted first, and pitching for the Braves was Tyson Staheli. Peyton Nielsen hit an RBI Triple to put the first run on the board. He went on to steal home plate and make the score 2-0.
Then the Braves got up to bat. Dustin Gordon started as pitcher for the Angels. The Braves answered with two runs of their own, by Tyson Staheli and Jayden Bunker. The score was all knotted up at two after the first inning.
Following a scoreless second inning and no runs by the Angels in the top of the third, the Braves had their best inning of the game. Gunnar Redd hit a triple to start off the inning and got a run home in the process. Then, Tyson Staheli got Redd home with a Double of his own while also getting Jayden Bunker around the bases. A Home Run brought Staheli home and the score was extended to 7-2 for the Braves.
In the fourth inning, the Angels scored three runs by Landon Wrzesinski, Dustin Gordon, and Peyton Nielsen. Nielsen hit the other two home and scored his run after getting out of a “pickle” between home plate and third base.
In the next inning, the Angels scored a run while the Braves scored two, by Tajh Totten and Gunnar Redd.
In the sixth and final inning, the Angels had one last chance to score and extend the game. But they could not, so the game was over. The Braves had won the Championship.
“I’m really proud,” said Braves coach Jerrid Matheson of his team. “They had a few rough moments but just kept working at it. Sometimes they let themselves get down but they ended up learning to keep their head up.”
Matheson went on to say that the team had improved most this year on their batting. He said the lower end of the lineup began batting better than ever in the past few weeks, and he was very impressed. Matheson went out of his way to say, “Congratulations to the other teams in the league as well. Everyone did very well and I thought every kid in the league did awesome.”
“It’s awesome to see the valley get together and just enjoy some baseball and good competition,” Matheson said.
With that, the little league baseball season ends. In the end, the Braves left with the championship victory.
