West End 13-16s begin play at Babe Ruth World Series today

MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette Correspondent
Third baseman Wyatt Bair prepares to field a ground ball from West End manager Marc Hess during infield practice at in preparation for the Babe Ruth 13-16-year-old World Series.

To say it’s been a wild summer would probably be an understatement if you asked West End 13-16-year-old all-star manager Marc Hess or any of the players on the team. Rewind to early June, and the players were getting together practicing at Logue Field and preparing for the state tournament hoping to maybe win the title.

Just two months later, they’re heading to Branson, Missouri to participate in the Babe Ruth World Series.

“Definitely when we put the team together we knew there was a chance this could happen, but as you play the games and see we’ve been pretty dominant. The closer it got, the more realistic it’s gotten, that’s for sure,” Hess said. “The kids are definitely excited. … It’s going to be an exciting time. I don’t think any kid here’s played in Missouri, it’s going to be something new to go to Missouri to play. So that’s something different for us as well.”

The Babe Ruth World Series for the 13-16-year-old division begins on Saturday in Missouri. The tournament consists of pool play competition before the elimination portion. The World Series fifth-place, third-place and championship games are scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 17.

West End’s all-star team has shown it has the ability this summer to put up runs in bunches through both the Pennsylvania state and the Mid-Atlantic Regional tournaments this year.

“It’s just the old cliche as soon as one guy starts hitting, they all start hitting. They like to have the big inning. We explain if you can win every single inning you can definitely win the game,” Hess said. “Our goal is always to put up at least one every inning and you get to the point you start putting up a ton of numbers up. We got to at least look at that and when we do do that, we can try to save some pitching as well as the tournament lines up with the pitch count.”

Getting this far is new for many players on the West End all-star team. A few have played in the state tournament before or even regionals. But the World Series? That’s new territory.

“It’s come fast. It’s definitely been something that has changed for me and some of us that haven’t made it this far,” West End’s Lucas Naughton said. “It’s been a new kind of feeling and lot of excitement throughout the team. A lot of chances we haven’t had before.”

“It’s been pretty incredible. We’ve never been to a World Series and this team, we knew we were good enough to go,” West End’s Wyatt Bair added. “It’s been an enjoyable experience, especially with all of our friends together one last time.”

In total, 20 teams will be participating at the Babe Ruth World Series broken up into four different pools for competition. West End will be in a pool with host Branson, Missouri; Alabama; Korea; and Australia. West End plays Alabama on Saturday at 6 p.m. in their first game, Australia on Sunday at 3:30 p.m., Korea on Monday at 1 p.m. and Branson, Missouri on Tuesday at 10:30 a.m.

The other teams in the tournament include Puerto Rico, Taiwan, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Colombia, Mexico, Nigeria, Norwalk, Colorado (Border), Oregon (SEMO), California (Torrance), Oregon (Portland), Florida (Sarasota), Connecticut (Norwalk) and Wisconsin (Eau Claire).

“It’s nothing like states or regionals, we really have to come out,” Naughton said. “If we can hit every inning like we have had a couple games here, there should be no reason we can’t win every game.”

Hess knows that it will be tough competition at the World Series and no game is given.

“The goal is to win the whole thing, but of course last time we were here two years ago we finished third,” Hess said. “So you always wanna do better than that. The goal is to at least make to to the championship game and see what happens.”