PHOTO COURTESY MATT HARRIS
Dax Simpson delivers a pitch in the Medicine Hat U13 Mavs' 10-4 win Sunday over the host Kingston Colts at the Little League National Championship.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat U13 Mavs control their destiny to finish the summer, with two more games left.
They face Team Ontario today at noon in the semi-finals of the Little League Intermediate Nation championship, with a win putting them into a national final for the second year in a row.
Head coach Greg Morrison says he’ll be more nervous than the team who looks to finish the story and get back to the national finals after the core of the team lost in last year’s finals to B.C.
“I’m just glad we get to play these extra games,” Morrison said. “One it was getting through districts to get those extra games for their overall development and it is unfinished business you can say for a lot of the kids. But in the end, just because it’s unfinished doesn’t mean it has to happen the second time there.
“So it’ll just come down to some timely hitting and great pitching performances, guys making the routine plays and that’s exciting. Thing about sport is, you have to play the game to find out what’s going to happen.”
The Mavs finished the round robin in second place after a 10-0 loss Saturday to team B.C., who finished 5-0. Medicine Hat beat the host Kingston Colts 10-4 on Sunday for a 4-1 record, setting up today’s game against Team Ontario (3-2).
Sunday’s win gave the Mavs the bounce-back effort they needed after Saturdays loss to B.C., just their 10th loss in 44 games this season. Morrison says they played with the composure needed to get to this point and he says the experience of both losing and responding is needed.
“Our guys had a really good record this year, they had a couple real good teams that beat us, but you learn more from those failures or from those losses than you’re going to from the wins, so they’re in a really good position,” Morrison said. “As a coaching staff, we’re really pleased with the defensive side of it, the opportunities we gave to develop all the arms so that we’d have a good deep bullpen and we’ve put them in that situation, now it’s just they get to go out and play. Now it’s up to the boys.”
A win today and the Mavs would face the winner of team B.C. and Team Ontario, who face-off before their game, in the final on Wednesday. The winner of that final earns a spot at the Little League Intermediate championship held in Livermore, Calif. July 27 to Aug. 3.
Morrison says they are at the point in the tournament and the summer where the ball is metaphorically and literally in the team’s hand.
“There’s not a whole bunch of coaching staff can do when it comes down to it other than putting the lineup out there and trusting your players,” Morrison said. “We really do trust them, they’re a great group of kids.”
For Morrison, who has played at the provincial, national and international level, watching this team go on this run has brought him back to his time at those levels and he says he’s learned from mistakes then and applied them to this team, helping them reach their ultimate goal. It’s those lessons, the trials and tribulations that come with winning or losing, this group will have to lean on for the rest of their lives Morrison says.
“They will become their experiences in life, whether they’re using it for next year when the pressure is on and they’re the guy with the bat in the hand or pitching on the bump, or whether they’re 22 years old and baseball is done,” Morrison said. “Hopefully it’s not and they can keep playing as long as they want and they can just draw on, ‘hey, I have the confidence to do this,’ because it really is about confidence.
“That’s really what these kids have to learn that when the pressure is on, you get your self talk, positivity and it’s tough, because it’s not perfect. We all fail at every age, but they just know now they’ve had that great opportunity to be in those situations where you have to be willing to fail, to be the champion and that’s pretty exciting in life, because a lot of kids don’t get that opportunity.”
