Britton’s U16 Teeners ran into a strong Selby ballclub in the Region 7B tournament in Britton last week.
Selby downed the local nine 8-4 in the tournament opener and then ended the Jacks’ season with an 8-2 win in the championship game of the double elimination tourney. If Britton, which finished its season with a 12-11 mark, had won the Tuesday contest a second title game would have been held to determine the state tournament qualifier.
The Region 7B champs will compete in the Class B state VFW Teener tournament set for Platte Friday through Sunday.
“Against a good team you just can’t have mistakes and we had a few errors that were costly for us,” said Coach Bill Bray. “But we had a good season and finished regular season play by winning seven of eight games. The kids definitely made strides as the season went on, especially with our pitching and defense, which I think are the two most important things in baseball. When we got those things kind of figured out we won games.”
The U16 squad depended on contributions from a number of players that also competed on the U14 team, and Bray felt his club may have run out of gas.
“The U14 team made their run in the state tournament the weekend before our games, finishing third, and some of our kids played games on seven out of eight days,” Bray noted. “I think we may have just been a little tired. But it was a good year as far as getting our field done and the boys winning some games. We had a lot of positive things about the season.”
