Manager Dave Chicks broke his long-standing, self-made rule of no new baseballs at practice when he hauled out a ball bucket filled of 39 baseballs for his KWRL Centerfield Roosters 15U Babe Ruth all-stars.
By the players’ reactions, might as well been Christmas morning.
“These guys are in the World Series,” Chicks said. “What kind of cheapskate wouldn’t buy new baseballs for a team going to the World Series?”
For the Roosters, it’s the 13-15 Babe Ruth World Series that begins Thursday and runs through Aug. 16 at Lower Columbia College’s David Story Field in Longview. They’ll open pool play of the tournament at 11 a.m. Friday against New Castle, Ind., the Ohio Valley champions.
They’re one of two KWRL teams to qualify for Babe Ruth World Series by winning regionals. The KWRL Hit Squad 14U all-stars head to Eagle Pass, Texas, for the 14-year-old tournament that also runs Thursday through Aug. 16.
From Woodland to Hudson’s Bay, eight different high schools are represented. There’s no talk of “team” here, either. It’s all family, said Irving Alvarez, one of two La Center players on the team.
“We don’t consider each other teammates,” Alvarez said.
For many players, such as Alvarez and Michael Goode of La Center, and Aidan Hundt and Derek Kropp of Ridgefield, it’s their fourth year together. Last year, the team was second at regionals to a team that eventually placed second at the 14-year-old World Series at West Linn, Ore.
In fact, Hundt, a catcher whom Chicks describes as the leader of the team, challenged the team not only at state, but at regionals to have the drive, and reach a level nobody on the roster’s achieved: get to a World Series.
“After regionals,” Hundt said, “I asked, ‘Who’s never been to a World Series?’ Everyone raised their hand and that’s when we really turned it up.”
It happened July 28 by winning two games to win the regional title, including Alvarez’s complete-game pitching effort in the regional final over Portland Babe Ruth, 9-2.
In a season that began mid-May after the high school season, Hundt already calls this as the greatest season of baseball he’s been a part of to date.
“We go hard all the time, and we don’t stop,” he said. “We play this game to have fun, but we treat it as a business.”
Chicks’ baseball coaching background stretches nearly 50 years at various levels, including 22 assisting at Ridgefield High School. He joined KWRL in 2010, and this also is his first World Series.
But to get there, it meant a summer of playing tough competition. He said he scheduled a number of weekend tournaments against 18U teams all while knowing it’ll pay off in time.
“I want to play the tough guys so we get better and look good later,” he said.
The Roosters held their own, and facing teams with older players who threw faster and hit harder made the Roosters focus on themselves rather the competition, Kropp said.
And in turn, made them a better team.
“It’s about the quality of baseball we play,” Kropp said. “Playing good, clean baseball and hitting the ball when we need to and playing small ball.
“That’s going to help us win the World Series.”
Said Alvarez: “We already got to the goal, but we’ll be happier if we win it all.”
Hit Squad bound for Texas
The KWRL 14U Hit Squad has grown up fast, and done it together.
The team manager Scott Harris first created the team five years ago so his son, Parker, and his friends could remain together on nearly the same team that’ll be playing in the 14-year-old Babe Ruth World Series that begins Aug. 9 in Eagle Pass, Texas.
Hit squad is comprised of players mostly from the Felida and Salmon Creek areas and most will be incoming freshmen at Columbia River or Skyview high schools.
“The fun thing about this team,” assistant coach Gary Giusti said, whose son, Nate, is a Hit Squad infielder, “is outside of games, they hang out even if they aren’t playing baseball.”
Hit Squad won its regional in Camas by defeating West Linn, Ore., 13-0 to earn its spot at the Babe Ruth World Series.
A year ago, Hit Squad was a tournament-only team. With limited games because of rainouts, it joined Babe Ruth for 2018, and with more games came more victories.
“I don’t know if we played 30 games last year,” Giusti said. “We’ve played a lot of baseball, and by playing more often, we played so much better.”
That came at state (Kelso) and regionals (Camas). At regionals, Hit Squad went 6-0 capped by the victory over West Linn in the regional final.
Hit Squad opens World Series play Friday at 12:30 p.m. Pacific Time against the Southeast champions.
KWRL Centerfield Roosters 15U all-star roster
Irving Alvarez
Michael Goode
Landen Krausse
James Kruse
Ethan Hefflin
Derek Kropp
Aidan Hundt
Devyn Turner
Caden McCray
Caden Reitzenstein
Alex Wood
Easton Ortega
KWRL Hit Squad 14U all-star roster
Alden Fay
Seth Minor
Max Mitchell
Dom Wakeland
Tim Jeffs
Cyi Buckmeir
Tanner Beaman
Parker Harris
Tyler Davis
Nate Giusti
Marcus Whitney
Casey Struckmeier
Tyler Howard
