The Battle 12U baseball squad made up of players from Carbon and Emery counties traveled to Cooperstown New York, home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame to compete in a tournament at Cooperstown Dreams Park, a sprawling complex with 22 fields. Eighty-six teams from across the country converged for a great week of baseball and Battle ended their run with a 5-2 record losing their final game to the eventual champions the HCYP Raiders Blue squad from Maryland.

Battle started on July 2 taking on the Batters Box Black team from Tennesee. Nate Tatton collected three hits and a pair of RBIs including a solo home run. Jace Bosone had a two-run homer and earned one more hit as Battle would collect a 5-0 win in their first contest.

Battle put a trio of pitchers on the mound earning a no-hit shutout. Tatton went four innings giving up no runs, no hits, and struck out seven. Mason Powell put in one inning striking out three with no hits and Austin Leonard came in to close out the game with no hits and struck out three.

The next day they would play a pair of games with the first one against the Dirtbags, a team from Charlotte, North Carolina. After the Dirtbags scored first, Battle came back and took a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the first off a Jacen Cowley three-run shot to left. Unfortunately, Battle would drop their first game of the tournament 8-5.

Rigdon Rhoten started on the mound putting in two innings giving up three hits and a pair of earned runs. Leonard went 2.1 and surrendered four earned runs on three hits and struck out two. Jaxton Smith closed the game, gave up two runs on two hits, and struck out two.

In the second game on Wednesday, Battle would face Wilmette Blue out of Illinois. Battle would come away with the 19-1 win in four innings. Tatton was again a big contributor with five RBIs on four hits including a grand slam home run and scored a pair of runs. Bosone added three hits an RBI and a pair of runs. Alex Martinez had a two-run home run, and Cowley sent one over the fence. Jacen Urbanik collected a hit with a pair of runs scored and one RBI.

Martinez got the start on the mound going a pair of innings giving up one hit and striking out two. Jack Madrid closed out the game giving up one hit.

First up on Thursday morning was Batters Box, a team from Colorado.  Battle got to work early jumping out to a 9-0 lead after two innings, and had a huge 10-run third to close out the Colorado team in four innings. Powell had a grand slam home run as one of two hits, four RBIs, and three runs scored. Rhoten collected three hits with two RBIs and a run scored, and Cowley had a grand slam, four RBIs, and a pair of runs scored. Smith also had a two-run homer.

Cowley got the start on the mound going three innings giving up just one hit and struck out five. Callan Donaldson closed out the game by surrendering a pair of hits, one run, and striking out one.

The next team up was Rawlings Prospects (Largent), a team from Maryland. This would be Battle’s largest offensive output as they would take the win 23-6.  Tatton had another great game collecting three hits, including a grand slam home run, earning four RBIs, and scoring four runs. Bosone had three hits with a pair of runs and four RBIs, and Leonard collected two hits including a three-run shot scoring two runs and had four RBIs. Smith and Powell each had solo home runs and Martinez sent a two-run homer over the wall.

Bosone went one inning on the mound with one hit and struck out two, and Madrid went the rest of the way surrendering six runs, five earned on eight hits.

On Friday, Battle would take on another team from Maryland, Chase Baseball, and while it was the closest game so far Battle was able to come away with a 4-3 win. Powell collected one hit, one run, and two RBIs off of his two-run home run. Bosone had a solo home run of his own and Martinez collected one run, one hit, and one RBI.

Smith went 4.1 innings on the mound giving up three earned runs on two hits and struck out five. Leonard came in to close things out putting in 1.2 innings worth of work surrendering one hit and striking out one.

On Saturday, Battle would face their final opponent and eventual tournament champion, HCYP Raiders Blue squad from Maryland. This was a tough-fought contest, and even though they had their chances Battle fell 15-14.

Powell collected a pair of hits including a three-run and a solo home run giving him four RBIs and scored three runs as well. Smith had four runs scored two hits and three RBIs thanks to his three-run shot and Tatton had a lead-off home run.

Tatton got the start on the mound putting in 3.2 innings of work giving up nine hits nine earned runs and striking out two. Cowley went 1.1 giving up six runs, four earned on two hits while striking out one.

Congratulations to Battle Baseball and thank you for representing Carbon and Emery counties:

Rigdon Rhoten

Alex Martinez

Austin Leonard

Nate Tatton

Callan Donaldson

Mason Powell

Jaxton Smith

Jacen Urbanik

Jacen Cowley

Jace Bosone

Jack Madrid

Coaches:

Darek Martinez

Justin Powell

Rob Smith

Timmy Urbanik