{gallery}07_22_10/baberuth{/gallery} Sheridan's Skyler Holwell delivers a pitch to home plate in the opening game of the 2010 Wyoming Babe Ruth state championship tournament. The event runs through Saturday afternoon in Powell. Tribune photo by Kara Bacon Powell all-star team hopes to defend titleIn the end, there can be only one. Eight 15-year-old Babe Ruth baseball teams descended upon Powell on Wednesday to begin state tournament play. The competition will run through Saturday afternoon, with the winner earning a spot in the Pacific Northwest regional tournament, to be played later this summer in Klamath Falls, Ore.

Teams representing Laramie, Sheridan, Rock Springs, Green River, Douglas, Lovell and Cody joined defending 2009 state champion Powell for the four-day event.

Teams began with the first of three pool-play games on Wednesday. Action in the four-team pools will continue Thursday and Friday, with each team playing one game each day. The top two teams in each pool following the conclusion of Friday's games will be cross-bracketed into Saturday's semifinals.

The winners of those two games will meet in Saturday's 3 p.m. championship contest. All Saturday games are single-elimination.

“The kids understand that they have a bulls-eye on their backs,” noted Powell Babe Ruth coach Pudge Fagan, whose team last summer captured Powell's first state Babe Ruth title in four decades and helped contribute heavily to a bout of late-summer baseball fever within the community. “They understand that everybody is going to be gunning for us.”

Five members from the 2009 state championship team are back on Powell's roster this summer. Joining them is a sizable group of 14-year-olds who don't seem intimidated by the magnitude of the stage.

“The 14-year-olds are seeing that it (a state title) is possible,” Fagan said. “That's the biggest change from last year to this year. This year, the kids know that it is possible, and they're working for it. The mental part of our game has gotten stronger. The kids expect to win. They're preparing to win, and the younger kids are contributing.”

Similar to last season, Powell's state tournament team is comprised of all-stars selected from the various regular season Babe Ruth teams in the community. While all the players on the team have seen plenty of baseball action this summer, they are still fairly new to playing together as a unit.

“We've played five actual games as a team,” said Fagan. “There have been some scrimmages and a whole lot of two-a-day practices. We've been going at 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. pretty regularly. The nice thing is we have a great bunch of coaches in this league. There are enough sets of eyes watching during the year that, by the time we get to this part of the season, the kids are well-coached.”

This week marks the second time Powell has served as the host for the state Babe Ruth tournament. The community served as the tournament host in 2007 as well and was awarded the rights to this summer's tournament during the winter meetings.

The tournament's opening ceremony took place before the start of Powell's opening game against Rock Springs on Wednesday night. Dee Havig threw out the ceremonial first pitch of the contest in recognition of his countless years of dedication to improving the Babe Ruth field.

Diamond Notes

• Powell's Cooper Wise was selected as the tournament MVP at the District 4 tournament last weekend. Wise was selected for the honor based upon a balloting of tournament umpires, narrowly edging teammate Justin Lynn for the award.

• Lovell received its place in the state tournament field despite a third-place finish in district competition. The community takes the place of Wheatland. The District 1 runner-up opted not to travel to Powell to compete in the state tournament this week.

• Powell's state tournament roster consists of Brendan Phister, Charles Wittick, Wilson Flowers, Cooper Wise, Cory Heny, BreaAnn Hollenbeck, Corey Elton, Cody Wichman, Frankie Vogt, Tyler Patterson, Marshall McArthur, Hayden Cragoe and Justin Lynn. Don't expect to hear those names used very often, however —every player on the team has a nickname that they go by. “Every kid needs a nickname,” notes Fagan. “It's something we try to do every year.”

•In addition to Fagan, the Powell team is coached by Trevor Timmons, Scott Heny and Tony Douzenis.

Editor's note: This version of this story corrects the spelling of Douzenis.