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July 3, 2008

Senior Babe Ruth kicks off today

By Cody Pastorella

Mid County's Senior Babe Ruth league will be hosting the annual 16, 17-18 year-old East Texas State Championship Tournament this weekend at Nederland High School.

   The 17-18 year-old all star bracket gets started at 4:30 p.m. today with Wharton and Brazoswood squaring off. Mid County and Bay City are scheduled to meet at 7 p.m. The losers' bracket will continue on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. while the winner's bracket will pick up play at 3 p.m. 

  The 16-year old bunch doesn't begin play until Saturday at 10 a.m. when Mid County faces off with Wharton. MC and Wharton will play a best of three series to determine which team will move on to Regionals in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Game 2 of that series will be at 5:30 p.m.

   Both the MC squads look poised to continue Mid County's typical success in State, Regionals and sometimes the World Series.    In fact, the 17-18s look really strong. For instance, the past two 16-year old MC teams have gone as far as the WS before losing out. Most of the players from those teams make up this years 17-18 squad. 

   MC is led by all state short stop and District 22-4A MVP Eric Harrington. Joining Harrington is catcher and teammate at Port Neches-Groves High School Jon Carnahan. Also from PN-G is Mitchell Todd, JJ Garcia and Austin Sangster. Nederland High School is represented by Ryan Sampere, Jude Vidrine, Justin Richard, Adam Broussard and Aaron McFarland. From Vidor, VJ Bunner, Will Fontonow, Chad Sims and Taylor Robichau. Other players include West Brooks' Aaron Bender, Hamshire Fannett's Randall Courville, Little Cypress-Mauriceville's Ben Jones and Lumberton's Stephen McDonough.

   The 16-year old squad has a handful of players with varsity experience. Their roster features Nederland's Cody Laird, Ryan Brady, Trey Terracino, Jackson Broussard, Marcus Louivere, Adam Zahradnic and Taylor Williams. Chris Sweetenham, Blake Reyenga, Jacob Lynch and Sammy Sparrow are all from PN-G. The rest of the roster includes, Ross Foret of Beaumont, Brandon Landry of Orange, Dylan Mulhollan of Orange, Sean O'Connell of Port Arthur and Lumberton's Skylar Stampley.

   The 16-year old head coach Clint Landry says he has a very balanced squad but knows Wharton will be tough to beat two times.

  "I think we have strong pitching and defensively and I think we are very capable with the bats," Landry said. "We're just going to have to hit the ball."

  The 17-18s are coached by Jimmy Collins. Collins said his group is as good a group that MC has had in five to six years.

  Last year, Wharton beat out MC in the 17-18 year-old division. It was the first time MC did not advance to regionals since 2002, the same year the 16s won the WS with the likes of Alan Harrington and Colin DeLome.

  This year will likely change as Alan's little brother Eric leads the way.   

  If MC's 17-18s do advance, Regionals will be in El Dorado, Arkansas. 

  "I think this is a very good team," Collins said. "We are very deep in pitching, quality speed, great defensively and we got a couple long ball hitters. We have plenty of weapons at our disposal. I think this team is very capable of going all the way. Hopefully we can win three quick ball games this weekend and start looking forward to regionals." 

  Collins said he had not determine who is starters will be or how exactly they will lineup but he said with their depth, everyone and anyone should be able to make a difference at some point this summer.

  The championship games are scheduled for Sunday. If the 16s need a third game to decide its champion, that game will be played at 2 p.m. Sunday while the 17-18s will start at 11:30 a.m. If there is no 16-year old game, the 17-18s will play at 1 p.m. Sunday.

   With most forecasts calling for rain this weekend, Collins said the only contingency plan is to just finish the tournament as soon as the weather permits. 

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