With the program opting to compete at the ‘B’ state tournament in Gillette in July, the Powell Pioneers took a relatively young squad of mostly ‘C’ players, going 1-2 at the tournament to end the season 9-17.

“We didn’t have the numbers to take a team to ‘C’ state and a team to ‘B’ state,” manager Tyler England said. “With that being the situation, I knew I would rather play up than play down, so I just took all of them to ‘B’ state that wanted to go … Most games (this year) I would get three guys from the ‘A’ team that weren’t getting as many looks up there to get them at bats or some time on the mound. But for the most part I kind of had the same nucleus of kids on both squads (‘C’ and ‘B’).”

Powell opened the tournament against the Casper Roughnecks, falling behind 3-0 after the first, before scoring in the second inning.

Ryder Stewart walked before stealing second, and scored on an error on Joel Baxter’s contact to make it 3-1.

Casper added a run in both the second and third innings and three in the fourth before one final run in the sixth made it a 9-1 game.

The Roughnecks outhit Powell 8-4, but committed more errors 4-2.

August Teten, Will Hatch, Stewart and Carter Fauskee each recorded a hit.

In an elimination game the Pioneers took on the host Renegades, holding off the hosts 6-5 in a close contest to advance to day three.

Gillette scored one in the top of the first and second to lead 2-0, before the Pioneers answered with a pair of three-run innings.

In the bottom of the second, Stewart led off with a single, before advancing to second and third on separate wild pitches.

Karzten Carter singled to score him and make it 2-1.

A ground out advanced Carter to second, before Baxter singled and put runners on the corners.

Baxter stole second, and a Fauskee ground out scored Carter to tie it 2-2.

Teten singled to score Baxter, giving Powell a 3-2 lead.

In the third, Dakota Erickson singled to lead off followed by a Stewart single.

Both advanced on a passed ball, before Carter singled to score one and make it 4-2.

After two outs, a wild pitch scored one runner before Fauskee singled to score another and make it 6-2 Powell.

A number of singles and walks helped Gillette answer with three in the fourth, cutting the lead down to 6-5.

Powell held on down the stretch, holding off two baserunners in the top of the seventh with one out to earn the 6-5 win.

Powell outhit Gillette 12-6, and committed no errors in a game England said the team needed to play clean baseball in order to win.

“That was huge and holy cow was it a good game,” England said. “They played errorless baseball in that game which is quite an accomplishment. I don’t care if it’s a ‘B’ or ‘C’ legion baseball game that’s not an easy thing to do. I think that will really keep them charged up when we start rolling into next season and in the meantime between now and then, I think that’s going to be kind of the smoldering coal that will keep stuff rooted for all of them.”

Carter went 3-3 with two RBIs to lead Powell at the plate, Teten, Hatch and Stewart each had two hits while Fauskee had two RBIs on his lone hit.

Teten went 6-1/3 for the win, giving up six hits, five earned, five walks and six strikeouts. Baxter gave up no hits, walking one and striking out two in relief.

On the third day the Pioneers took on the Post 6 Prep team, where Gillette’s strong hitting knocked the Pioneers out of the tournament.

Cheyenne scored two in the first, six in the third and one in the seventh to pull away from the Pioneers.

Cheyenne racked up 18 hits compared to five for Powell, while Cheyenne committed more errors 2-1.

Erickson recorded two hits at the plate to lead the Pioneers.

“I told them (the 13-year-olds) I can’t guarantee playing time for anybody, but I did tell them even if you’re there and if you can be mentally engaged, you’ll learn a lot from it,” England said. “It’s a big jump from Little League to legion baseball and even from ‘C’ to ‘B’ things just happen a little bit quicker. Your opponents are going to be a little sharper … I felt like everybody that went was super engaged, was not taking it for granted, they were all there to get better and learn for sure.”

Following the conclusion of their season, England is hopeful the younger Pioneers will continue to stay hungry moving forward, while saying this was a fun season to coach the younger group which he was able to grow with both at the ‘C’ and ‘B’ levels.

“I just hope they stay hungry. They really love to get after it and that made it super easy and enjoyable to show up every day as a coach. I never, ever had to wonder if guys wanted to be there,” England said. “It was a ton of fun. I hope that we had enough (fun) because it was an up and down season. It was hard, which it should be. I told them that easy is for suckers, we’re not here for stuff to be easy. We want things to be hard, and we’re tough enough to deal with that. I’m just really excited to see what does stick and where we can keep on building on these fundamentals.”