By Dave Hocanson | KOAL News |Photo courtesy of Utah Battle Baseball League
Carbon Battle Baseball has punched its ticket to the World Series in Jamestown, New York, in the middle of August. It has been quite a road to get to here, and still have some work to do before the first pitch is thrown.
Last week, they claimed the Pacific Southwestern Regional Championship in dramatic style, having to fight their way back from the one-loss bracket to close out Bel Mateo from Northern California in back-to-back games.
It was history in the making as they became the first team from our area and only the third team from the state of Utah to advance to the World Series in New York in the 72-year history of the league. To make it this far, they had to fight through 12 total games at three tournaments. They totaled 420 plate appearances, scoring 126 runs while giving up just 26 to their opponents, and left just 76 runners on base. Defense and pitching came up huge for Battle as well, throwing just 1236 pitches and earning 62 strikeouts. It was a lot of hard work that paid off to get this far.
After all the work on the diamond to earn their spot, now it’s a race to the finish as they have just two weeks to raise funds for the team there. If you would like to contribute, there is a Venmo link at the bottom of the page.
Coach Darek Martinez was a guest on KOAL’s Drive Time Sports and talked about the effort that the team put in to get this far and earn the wins to punch their ticket. He also discussed how much the local crowd helped them when they needed it the most.
“They do play a huge role. To see the support we had this week was incredible. These boys go through a lot because it is a high-pressure situation. With the size of the crowds that were there, with knowing what was on the line to see those boys battle through that was pretty incredible. I think they were excited to play in front of the crowds, and the bleachers were full. It was so impressive to see how many people were out in the outfield down both lines, above the dugout. And just the support from people, the calls and texts, we appreciate it so much. It was just a fun thing for everybody.
Click HERE to donate to help Battle get to the World Series.