Tough seeding leads to Majors all-star season cut short

The Big Horn County Little League all-stars for the Majors division found themselves in a difficult position to begin bracket play at the district tournament held in Mountain View last weekend.

The Mustangs swept through pool play on Wednesday and Thursday, cruising to a 14-8 victory over Riverton and following with an impressive 41-12 win over Powell before falling to Rock Springs 3-2 in an extra-inning nail-biter on Friday to be eliminated from the tournament.

RIVERTON

To lead off the tournament, the Mustangs opened with the all-stars from Riverton.

“I thought we had a good draw for our two pool play match-ups with teams we were familiar with,” head coach JT Mickelson said. “We faced Riverton last year in this tournament, and we knew they were solid.”

Lovell jumped out to a strong advantage, scoring five runs in the first inning and adding on another four in the second to make it 9-0 in favor of the Mustangs.

Riverton strung together some hits in the fourth and fifth inning to narrow the gap before Lovell closed the deal 14-8.

The Mustangs tallied eight total hits in the game led by Brock Butler, Brooks Brost and Xaden Baxendale, who all had two hits apiece, while Dane Wilson and Brhysan Henton added one each.

Bradley Mickelson got the start on the mound for Lovell and went three innings. He gave up no runs, walked none and struck out six batters.

Dax Mangus provided middle relief for .2 innings but struggled with his accuracy before Madden Cooley came in and closed out the game the final 2.1 innings to strike out two.

POWELL

Although the final score was a blowout, 41-12, the Powell all-stars battled the Mustangs close through the first four innings before the wheels fell off and Lovell ran away with the victory.

Powell took a 1-0 lead into the second inning before Lovell plated six in the top half of the frame.

The Mustangs seemed in control after adding on 11 runs in the fourth, but Powell answered back with nine of their own to prevent the 10-run rule from going into effect and sending the game into the top of the fifth.

Out of pitching, Powell was forced to put multiple players on the mound that had no experience, and whenever they managed to throw strikes, the Mustangs connected for strong base hits and ran up 23 runs in the marathon inning.

“Everyone drove the ball really well,” Mickelson said of his team. “We were feeling really confident at the plate and having good approaches to hitting.”

The team had an astounding 23 total hits in the game.

Mickelson, Wilson, and Camden Blain were dominant at the plate with three hits each and driving in multiple RBIs.

Mangus, Landon Asay, Gage Angell, Kayan Owens, Brost and Baxendale individually had a pair of hits while Cooley and Butler had one each.

Butler, Wilson, Asay and Brost each contributed on the hill for the Mustangs and combined for five strikeouts and five walks, while allowing only eight hits.

ROCK SPRINGS

Based on head-to-head matchups and standings, the Mustangs anticipated being paired with Lander heading into bracket play, but that wasn’t the case.

Instead, the tough squad from Rock Springs awaited them in the opening round, and both teams knew it was going to be a dog fight.

The pitching duel lived up to the hype with aces from both squads dishing out strikeouts and keeping their opponent’s offense at bay.

Mickelson stole home in the second inning to give the Mustangs a slim 1-0 lead early on before Rock Springs plated two in the top of the fourth to gain the momentum.

In the bottom of the sixth, Wilson started the inning with a double to right field and later scored on a ground ball single by Angell to tie the score at 2-2 and send it in an extra inning.

Lovell’s hurler, Mickelson, lasted six innings with his allotted 85-pitch count, striking out nine batters, only walking two and giving up five total hits for two runs to Rock Springs.

Rock Springs managed to squeak a single run across the plate against closer Brost in the top of the tied seventh inning that proved to be the difference since the Mustangs failed to score in the bottom of the inning to fall 3-2.

The only hits for the Mustangs came from Cooley, Mickelson, Wilson and Angell with one apiece for a total of four.

“I was so proud of our team, and the boys played their hearts out,” the coach said. “We fought until the end and gave Rock Springs a run for their money.”

Although it wasn’t the ending the Mustangs were hoping for, Coach Mickelson claimed his team “left it all on the field” and represented Big Horn County Little League well in every way.