Pioneers suffer two losses at North District Tournament

Two losses at the North District Tournament brought the end of the Powell Pioneers’ unexpected growing season.

This wasn’t intended to be a building year for the Pioneers, but it just turned out that way, coach Jason Borders said.

There were enough returning players from last year’s team that the start of the season didn’t look like it would turn out the way it did.

“But, with injuries and low numbers, we played most of the year with just 11 kids, which most teams have 18 kids,” Borders said. “An injury here and there and we were down to 11 and my young guys had to step up.”

And step up, they did.

 “They had to play from day one basically,” Borders said.

The Pioneers’ 15-year-old catcher Tyler Feller would have played in the Babe Ruth league, but that all changed and he was up against players with far more experience. That exposure increased Feller’s skills and his maturity throughout the season.

“He improved considerably from day one and he just stood up and took the job,” Borders said. “He had to get tougher; you get beat up a lot and mentally you just have to be tougher because you can’t throw everyone out.”

Just like Feller, second baseman and outfielder Zavier Wantulok, 16, also had to make the transition from Babe Ruth to Legion ball – and with more playing time came more confidence, Borders said.

“Going from 13-year-olds to 19-year-olds is a big jump,” Borders said. “The game is faster and at a higher level. It's like a high school sport, how many freshen and sophomores play varsity? … That is baseball in a nutshell, he got past being scared at the beginning to handling it the way he should have.”

Another Pioneer to thrive under the transition was outfielder and pitcher Ty Dearcorn, 16, Borders said. Dearcorn spent a lot more time at the mound than most 16-year-olds traditionally would because of the injuries other players sustained during the season.

“I think it is going to make us better in the future,” Borders said. “This was probably out of all my years in the program, this was the toughest year ever as far as everything goes.”

Turnout for the Pioneers was low at the start of the season with many of the players younger than usual. But, two players were taken out with ACL injuries and another with bulging disks in his back right before the Pioneers faced Cody at conference play – costing the Pioneers some valuable senior players.

“We have never had injuries like this,” Borders said. “If you take two seniors off, it just makes it rough. It has been that kind of a year, just hell from the get-go. We did what we could with what we had.”

The Pioneers made it to the state championship last year, so to go from that to this season’s sobering ending was “pretty tough,” Borders said.

“It was the last thing any of us expected, we expected to do a lot better,” Borders said. “It was just crazy. I’ve coached a lot of years and never had back-to-back games that bad.”

It was a rough end of the season for the Powell Pioneers as they lost to the Wheatland Lobos 19-2 on Wednesday at the North District Tournament at Wheatland. The Pioneers went on to face the Gillette Rustlers and were eliminated 15-5 on Thursday.

“It was probably the two worst games we played all year,” Borders said.

Wheatland 19, Powell 2

The team was feeling loose and confident on their way to Wheatland since they had seen all the other teams before except for the Lobos. The Pioneers had beaten Cody before and won four of five games against Lovell, who ended up taking third.

“It wasn’t like we went in there scared of anyone. It was just baseball ­— you never know what is going to happen in a game,” Borders said. “Sometimes you play well and don’t have an explanation, and sometimes you come out bad and don’t have an explanation. If the tournament was next week, it could have been different.”

It was anyone’s game for the first six innings with the Pioneers down 2-1 in the sixth. Wheatland landed six while Bryce Wright scored an RBI single at the bottom of the sixth; he was 2-2 at the plate.

 “We just got really tight, and the deeper we got the worse it got,” Borders said. “I don’t have an explanation of why, it just snowballed from there.”

Cory Heny allowed eight runs in 5 2/3 innings, walking three and striking out five.

The eighth inning proved to be the worst for the Pioneers with 10 runs going to the Lobos and none for the Pioneers.

 “I think we came out really tight and didn’t play to our abilities,” Borders said.

Gillette 15, Powell 5

Coming off the previous day’s loss, the Pioneers had a rough start in their Thursday game against the Gillette Rustlers with the first inning ending Gillette, 6, Pioneers, 1.

The Pioneers took an early lead when Cory Heny singled and Wright brought him home on a single, but the team was never able to recover after that.

 “In the second game, we just started off bad — gave up six runs before we got an out,” Borders said.

Carson Asher had hits for all three at bats with a double in the second inning, and singles in the fourth and sixth innings.

The Pioneers narrowed the deficit 6-2 in the fourth with Toby Stowe’s groundout.

“We came out even tighter in the second game because we knew it was on the line if we lost,” Borders said. “We tried not to lose, and it got away from us.”

Ezra Andreasen allowed six runs with two walks and no strikeouts.

The game and season ended with the Pioneers eliminated 15-5.

Looking ahead

During the off-season, the coaching staff and board will work on getting more kids interested in playing, Borders said.

“We can’t keep surviving with 11 kids, it is not feasible,” Borders said.

Prior to this year, it was rare to have 15-year-olds on the team. The typical line up would have four or five kids per class, but now it is about three from each, he said.

“Our numbers have dropped and I don’t know why because Powell is a baseball town,” Borders said.

Some of the Pioneers players will play fall baseball in Cody, so the interest is there, he said. There are about five or six kids finishing up their time on Little League who will join the Pioneers next season.

“It isn’t like the losses crushed us, they want to work hard and get better,” Borders said. “The future is bright, we just need to get a few more kids involved in the sport.”