It was a wild ride for the Powell Minors All-Stars at last week’s State Championship Tournament in Lovell, though it ended a day early for the local little-leaguers with Friday’s 7-5 loss to Gillette American.

The tournament wound up being Park County versus the city of Gillette as Cody opened things up Wednesday with a 9-4 win over Gillette National and Powell fell in an epic, eight-inning 14-13 battle with Gillette American.

The “lil’ Pioneers” threatened in the top of the first, loading the bases with nobody out, but Gillette’s Aidan Dorr got out of it by retiring the next three batters.

The Powell defense then looked up to the challenge as Gillette’s first batter lined a shot into center, only to have Rayce Degraffenreid make a spectacular sliding catch.

But two walks and a single loaded the bases for the American squad, with an error and single bringing two runs home.

The lead grew to 6-0 when Gillette scored four in the second, but that’s when the Powell bats got on track.

Degraffenreid started the top of the third with a single and Jacob Orr drew a walk.

Dorr, however, struck out the next batter and got a fielder’s choice grounder off Dillon Payne’s bat hit back at him, with his throw to third retiring Degraffenreid.

But as Ethan Welch drew a walk, Orr raced in on a wild pitch, bringing Carver Partlow in from the bullpen for the Americans.

Another pitch got away during Alex Jordan’s at bat, bringing Payne in, and when Jordan reached on an error, Welch came in to cut the lead to 6-3.

Jordan and Gunnar Erickson would soon score as well, making it a 6-5 margin.

Powell evened it up on a Degraffenreid double in the fourth and an RBI single from Orr, but the bottom of the fourth saw Gillette widen the margin with four runs for a 10-6 lead.

It didn’t take long for the boys in orange to tie it up again as Isaiah Woyak, Treysan Norris, Jacob Gibson and Cade Queen all reached and came across in the top of the fifth, knotting it at 10-10.

The score would remain even through the bottom of the fifth and sixth as Queen came on in relief and struck out five of the six batters he faced.

Into extra innings it went, with both teams mounting threats in the seventh that were wiggled out of.

Then in the eighth, Welch and Norris singled and scored, while Gibson reached on a walk and came around to put Powell up 13-10.

But Gillette made the most of having the last at bat, scoring four runs to come away with the 14-13 win.

The loss pitted them against Gillette’s other team, the Nationals, who had dropped a 9-4 game to Cody in the first round.

But after a bit of back-and-forth early on, this one was all Powell as Jacob Gibson and Orr, who had doubled to right center, scored in the first for a 2-0 lead.

Gillette cut it in half with a lone run in the top of the second, but Queen hit a two-run double in the bottom of the second to extend it to 4-1.

The Nationals plated two runs in the third, though Powell scored three times in the bottom of the frame with an RBI double from Degraffenreid and a run-scoring single from Gibson.

Now up 7-3 and the hard-throwing Queen on the mound, two strikeouts in a scoreless top of the fourth set the stage for a big rally to win this one going away.

Orr led off the bottom of the fourth with an infield single and moved to second on a wild pitch.

Queen singled through the left side, putting runners on the corners.

A grounder off Jordan’s bat scored Orr, but forced Queen at second, before Welch ripped a single up the middle.

Jordan raced for third, forcing a throw which got away, allowing him to score and Welch to race around to third.

Alex DeBoer worked a walk and during Treysan Norris’s at bat, Welch came in when a pitch got away.

DeBoer would later score on a wild pitch as Jhett Schwahn drew a base on balls and Degraffenreid rocketed a triple to right, scoring Schwahn and putting the lead at 12-3, just one run away from a mercy-rule win.

That run came in soon enough as Degraffenreid darted in when a pitch got past and Powell was moving on by eliminating this Gillette team.

Powell vs. Gillette

Cody had topped Gillette American in an 18-5 win in Thursday’s late game, setting up a rematch with Powell to see who would take on Cody in the title game. And things didn’t look good from the start as some errors and decisions in the field dug Powell an early hole as Gillette had a 7-0 lead after two innings.

Queen came on to pitch in the third and held American in check, notching eight strikeouts over four innings of work.

The Powell bats, however, weren’t able to mount much against Dorr through the first three innings, but things came together in the fourth.

Norris started things with a single to right and moved up a base when Welch walked.

Another free pass, to DeBoer, loaded the bases and an Isaiah Woyak ground out proved productive in plating Norris.

Payne followed with an RBI single and Degraffenreid singled to re-load the bases.

Gibson then came through with a single to score a run and Queen knocked in two with a single off reliever Mason Drube to cut the lead to 7-5.

Alas, that would be Powell’s last gasp. Despite a bit of controversy in the fifth due to a batter’s foot being out of the box on an infield hit that put runners on the corners — that would be held up, then reversed with a do-over which went for another infield single, then changed again to the original call.

“These kids kept fighting,” head coach Chris Queen said afterward. “In both games against this team, we spotted them a bunch of runs, but the kids continued to fight back.

“It’s been a lot of fun, these are some great kids who love to play and listen to what we tell them,” he continued. “Sometimes our practices would go three hours because these kids love playing so much that they don’t want to come off the field. Everyone improved during this, and they were able to do something that Powell hasn’t been able to do in five or six years in getting here. With the love these players have for the game, and with how hard they work, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them right back here in years to come.”