Breckenridge Texan

The Breckenridge Intermediate Little League All-Stars season came to end Saturday, July 13, as they lost to San Antonio Northside Suburban 9-6 in the Texas West State Little League Tournament.

San Antonio picked up an early 6-0 lead in the game, and the Breckenridge boys fought hard to try and catch up. They scored 6 runs and even held San Antonio scoreless during some innings, but in the end, they couldn’t overcome the early point deficit.

In the game, Breckenridge scored 6 runs, had 8 hits, 2 errors and left 8 men on base. San Antonio had 9 runs, 9 hits, 3 errors and left 9 men on base.

After the game, Breckenridge Coach Van Moore said his team had a lot of accomplishments to be proud of this year and that they were excited about ending the season with a 19-2 record, which he said is pretty impressive for a Little League team or even a high school team. And, he said, they were excited to be one of only six teams in the whole state at their level that were still playing baseball during state tournament time.

He said the team faced some new challenges during the tournament they hadn’t seen during their regular season. For example, there weren’t many games during the season when they were behind during the game and had to rally and come back to win like they did in the tournament. He also said playing the Brownsville team was quite a challenge.

Another challenge he mentioned was deciding on who would pitch during each game in the tournament. “We really had to think a lot about who we were going to pitch and when, and we hadn’t really had to do that all season or during the all-star season earlier,” Moore said. In the earlier tournaments, he said, it was easier to figure out pitching because they played two-game series.

“But this could have been a four-game series; we really had to figure out who could pitch when because of the rest rules. You have a certain amount of pitches you can throw,” he said.

Also, he said, playing in the all-star tournaments helped prepare some of the kids as they get ready to move into playing high school baseball.  Being on the all-star team and playing the better teams in the tournament was a good primer for the players.

“You know, a lot of them play travel ball, so they’re used to seeing higher caliber teams. But we’ve not been able to do that as this team, with these boys that all live here,” Moore said. “We’ve got three on one travel team; you’ve got four on another and two that kind of play a little bit here and there, but never, all of us Buckaroos together. Like I told them before the tournament, all those Midland boys, they probably are going to be in a 6A school. The Brownville kids (will be in a ) 5 or 6A school, and then all the kids from San Antonio in 5 or 6A schools. And here we are in our little 3A school.”

He said his players really worked hard during the year to get to the tournament and really stepped up for the tournament. “I mean, they all stepped up,” he said. “They all did well. They all accepted the challenge and not one of them was like ‘I can’t believe we’re here and we’re going to back down and take it.’ They stepped and just did their best.”

The Team

The team includes Jackson Curtis, Christian Arellano, Kayden Garcia, Ashton Reyes, Caiden Marin, Braye Cantrell, Camden Escalon, Aaron Moore, Cannon Valenzuela and Mason Vega. Coaches are Moore, Jesse Arellano and Raymond Marin.

Moore said Christian Arellano and Ashton Reyes hit well all year and Camden Escalon and Mason Vega pitched well all year and that carried over into the tournament. He said his son, Aaron, also stepped up and played six or seven different positions.

“A player that really stepped up this tournament, that played better than he’s ever played, was Cannon Valenzuela,” he said. “I believe he had most of our RBIs, and him coming in to pitch tonight kind of saved me because I was hoping to have Mason (Vega) pitch all night. He kept them pretty much at bay. Most of the runs were scored before he got in; he kept it from getting way out of hand.”

Moore said Vega was scheduled to be the starting pitcher Saturday night but had a hurt arm and couldn’t pitch.

Plus, Moore said, all the other leagues had several teams to choose from when they put together their all-star teams and could pick the best kids from each team. “We just showed up with what we had, so that’s pretty good kudos for a small town going against these big towns,” he said.

Community Support

Moore said there was also great community support for the team during the all-star tournament.

He said the support for the local baseball teams started earlier back in the high school season when a lot of people in the community were excited about that team and were turning out for those games.

“A lot of people that came out to these games that weren’t related to anybody were just excited about baseball in the future,” Moore said “Yeah, we had outstanding support. We had lots of calls all week wanting to know what time our games were, where they were and when we play.”

The Fight

Another important aspect Moore said he is proud of is the fight his team brought to the tournament, never giving up, even when they were behind in some of the games.

“You know that’s going to be a Breckenridge thing,” Moore said. “Going all the way to Coach Hubble; he talked about that a lot. He said at the sports banquet they (the Breckenridge High School football team) were in the fight for every single game. And I believe we were in the fight for every game that we played, even the two that we lost.”

For more details about the team’s participation in the Texas West State Little League Tournament, click the following links to previous Breckenridge Texan articles:

Breckenridge Little League Intermediate All-Stars to play in state tournament this week

Breckenridge Intermediate advances in Texas West tournament after defeating Midland Northern

Breckenridge Intermediate All-Stars fall to East Brownsville, continue tournament play today

Story by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan

Cutline, top photo: The Breckenridge Intermediate Little League All-Stars ended up the baseball season with a 19-2 overall record, finishing up play in the Texas West State Little League Tournament on Saturday. (Photo by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan)