An extremely young Powell Pioneer ‘C’ team saw plenty of growth and promise, despite being an undersized group, throughout a long summer season.

The youngest Pioneers didn’t earn their first win until an 8-7 win over Buffalo in late June, and earned their second win on the final day of the season against the Sheridan Bombers July 23 with a 10-6 win.

In the Buffalo win Marco Esparza and Beau Mainwaring led with two hits each, as Mainwaring had two RBIs. Esparza, Sam Horton and Juan Ramirez each recorded an RBI in the game.

Braxton Sullivan went 1-1/3 on the mound giving up four earned runs on one hit while walking three, and Paxton Herd gave up no hits and one earned run while striking out seven and walking four in 4-2/3.

In the Sheridan win, Herd led with two hits and tied for the team lead with two RBIs alongside Case Davis.

Sullivan and Nicholas Worthen added an RBI each.

Davis went three innings, giving up one hit, one earned run while walking three and striking out two.

Micah Baxter went two innings, giving up two hits, no earned runs, walking two and striking out five.

Herd went an inning in relief, giving up one earned run and striking out two.

In a unique season, the ‘C’ team was composed nearly entirely of 13-year-olds, as 11 were rostered, and manager Tyler England brought down the occasional 14-year-old to play when players were missing, but felt it was a good opportunity for a number of kids to see the field.

“A really good opportunity for all those young kids to get a lot of experience and playing time. The biggest thing you find, it doesn’t matter whether you’re going from Legion to college, or Little League to Legion, any time you’re doing that transition, it’s a big change when the field gets a lot bigger,” England said. “I had a couple big 13-year-olds, but most of them are just little guys.”

He said the goal this year was to lay the foundation for the future, and set the expectations and the culture of the program.

“I’m really excited for next year because I think that they have a way better idea of what needs to happen or what my expectations are for them at Legion now as opposed to how things were before this year,” England said.

He felt the transition to this level was difficult for some, as he wanted them to step out of their comfort zone and try new things.

“I think the biggest thing I fought this year with those guys was them being resilient to trying new things … Because what they’ve done in the past was just too comfortable. They weren’t really willing to step out of their comfort zone to try things that I’m pretty sure will work better for them than the way they’re doing things, but that was a big one for them to work through this year,” England said.

He felt things were clicking towards the end of the season, and the players never put their heads down despite a 2-29 record.

“It would have been a really easy season for those kids to put their heads down early on and then just leave them there the rest of the summer,” England said. “I never felt like I was dealing with any of that, which says a lot about those kids really.”

Baxter led the team in batting average with a .345, leading with 19 hits and recording 11 RBIs.

Herd pitched the most innings with 31, and struck out 43 batters as Esparza also struck out 43 in 27 innings.

Moving forward, England believes the youngest Pioneers have a ton of athletic potential, and with a year of growth they could have a strong year next year.

“There’s a ton of athleticism and talent on that team. They’re super talented,” England said. “They’ve got all the potential in the world, this is a very talented group of boys. They’re a couple little pieces away from getting it to come together.”

He said he would love for the whole ‘C’ team to play together again next year, and continue to grow together except when he needs to steal one or two of them for the ‘B’ level.