ttle League teams compete in Bear Lake Tournament

There were two local Little League teams that competed last weekend in the annual Bear Lake Little League Tournament. The Malad Dragons competed in the Major League Tournament while the Malad Select competed in the Minor League division.

The Malad Select competed in their first tournament of the season in the Bear Lake Tournament. This newly formed team has players from Malad, Logan, and Pocatello. They worked hard during the pool play and started to learn to play together as a team. They then entered the bracketed tournament. This team wanted to bring home a medal and went right to work. They worked hard and earned the first place medal in their bracket of the tournament. They were very excited to bring home a medal and are hoping to continue to play hard as they compete in the Malad Little League Tournament this weekend. 

The Malad Dragons had an exciting tournament run at Bear Lake. This has been a team-favorite tournament during the four years they have been able to play and the team had mixed emotions as they headed into their final chance to play at this tournament. But they came out and wanted to play well in this tournament, hoping to finally get into the Championship game. 

During this tournament, the Malad Dragons hit nine home runs and came very close to hitting 12. Kurt Ward finished the tournament with four home runs. Dawsyn Peterson had three. Ethan Horsley and Drake Morrison each had a home run.  Coach Brad Thorpe said every players on the team had their best batting or hitting game in the tournament to help their team finish with a 4 – 1 record in the gold bracket.

Malad started off pool play against a really good Minico team. Coach Horsley said Malad’s bats were really good in this battle and the Dragons took the win at 21 – 8. They then faced the Ammon Riverdogs. Coach Horsley said Malad’s fielding was “awesome with very few errors throughout the tournament” and that paid off in this game. Malad was able to pitch well and get the win at 16 – 6.

This put Malad against the Utah Drive in their first game of the bracketed tournament. Coach Horsley said Malad always seems to get the super tough draws in the tournament and this game was no exception. Yet, Coach Horsley added, this was one of the most exciting games he has ever been a part of. Both teams had good pitchers that threw the ball hard. 

Early in the first inning, Malad struggled to get anything going. With two out Dawsyn Peterson crushed a home run to score a run. Then, Ethan Horsley was able to walk, steal second on a passed ball, and race for home when the catcher overthrew second base. Malad was able to go up 2 – 0 in the first inning. 

Easton Green pitched for Malad and was able to keep the Drive off base. This continued into the second inning where neither team scored. Malad was up 2 – 0 still. 

The Drive had a hard hit to short stop. Dawsyn Peterson dived for the ball and was hit in the eye. His eye swelled up quickly and coaches had to take him out of the game to try to get the swelling to go down. The Drive started to get their bats going. They were hitting small hits but they were getting into the gaps. Then, with loaded bases they hit a grand slam. The Drive went ahead 8 – 2, taking the win out of the Dragons’ sails.

Peterson started to feel better so he was entered back into the game as the pitcher. The struck out the next two batters with six pitches to get Malad out of the inning. The team started to rally back. Kayson Neal hit a clutch hit to left field, his best hit, and started the rally for Malad. Everyone hit the ball and got on base. Dawsyn Peterson crushed the ball to right field and it hoped the fence. Kurt Ward also had a hit to right field that he was able to score on. Malad scored 7 runs to pull ahead 9 – 8. This was a momentum change for the game that Horsley said everyone could feel.

Peterson continued to pitch the next inning, keeping the Drive off base. Malad came up to bat and hit the ball well again, scoring seven more runs. Malad went on a 14 – 0 run with 15 hits. The Dragons took the win at 16 – 8. Peterson pitched for two and two-third innings, striking out seven batters. Every player contributed, which Coach Horsley said was very impressive against this caliber of pitching.

Malad was now in the semi-finals where they faced the Utah Spikes. Coach Horsley said this should have been the Championship game and was even told that by one umpire. The Spikes had not allowed any runs during the entire tournament but Malad was able to get a run on them. But Malad fell to the Spikes 5 – 1. The Dragons were the only team to score on this team that would go on to win the tournament. 

“We hit so well the entire tournament,” said Coach Horsley. “The boys felt confident. We all felt good about this tournament.”

The Dragons will be competing this weekend in Malad at the 63rd annual Malad Little League Tournament.