The Powell Pioneers looked to extend what has been a rough summer a little longer at the Wyoming Legion Baseball A State Tournament in Douglas last week.

But the results came out much the same as they had these last few months with Powell dropping an 11-1 game to the South’s top-seeded Cheyenne Hawks and a 14-4 elimination-game loss to host Douglas.

The Pioneers actually drew first blood in the opener against Cheyenne, as Ezra Andreasen worked a walk off Hawks starter Jon Nyberg.

A sacrifice bunt by Colin Queen moved Andreasen all the way to third, where he scored on a Carson Asher ground out to short.

Cheyenne answered with two in the bottom of the inning, and one in the third before starting to pull away with four in the fourth.

Nyberg, meanwhile, limited Powell to just four hits, to go with four walks drawn, before giving way to reliever Max Pedroza for the final out of the game.

The Hawks added a pair of runs in both the sixth and seventh inning to get the 10-run rule win.

Defensive miscues were part of the downfall for Powell as just five of the 11 runs given up were earned.

Next up was a Thursday game against the Cats of Douglas, whom the Pioneers had fared well against at the Green River Tournament in late May.

Kaden Moore and Douglas’ Brayden Hunsucker had locked horns in a pitchers duel, with the Cats eking out a 2-1 win, before the Pioneers pounded four Douglas pitchers in a 12-4 win.

And while Powell had better luck against Hunsucker this time around, scoring three in the second and one in the fourth, the Cats’ bats were too much.

The home team scored four in both the first and second innings, added three in the fourth, two in the sixth and one in the seventh to account for the final margin.

For a few of Powell’s “boys of summer,” this was the last go-around as their American Legion playing days came to a close.

“It was a really rough season from a win/loss standpoint, but these past two years with the team have made up some of my funniest and best memories,” Kaden Moore said. “I wouldn’t trade them for months of relaxation or work, for sure. I’m glad that the guys we had at State were there. We lost a lot of players going all the way back to the younger leagues and as our coach (Wes Satzinger) told us after the last loss, it shows a lot of character to stick it out, even though we didn’t get the results we wanted. That’s how life can be a lot of the time and I’m just glad I got to do something with some of my best friends before we all head off to start our own lives.”

And so for the likes of Moore, Asher, Teagan Cordes, Andreasen and Jackson Griffin, summer days on these diamonds are done, though the Pioneers will look for good times ahead.

“We had some 14-year-olds that really helped us towards the end of the season,” Moore said. “If they helped us this year, I’m looking forward to how well they will be playing when they get to my age.”

Asher agreed with the assessment.

“I think if a lot of the younger guys keep playing, the program will look really good soon,” he said.