The Black Hills Youth Baseball 12U all-star team has already done its fair share of travel this summer, but is set for one more doozy of a road trip.
After sweeping through the state and regional tournaments with ease, Black Hills — which brings in players from all of Thurston County, as well as Centralia and Chehalis — punched its ticket to the Cal Ripken 12U World Series, coming up in August in Branson, Mo.
Now, they just have to figure out how to get everybody there in a matter of a week and a half.
“It’s been kind of a whirlwind, drinking water from the firehose type of thing for the past few days,” coach Geoff Pohl said.
It’s just the second time Black Hills has sent a team to the World Series, and the first time for a 12U side, after its 10U team went in 2009.
The way Cal Ripken baseball is set up, there are postseasons for every division from 9U up to 12U, but only 10U and 12U have World Series, while 9U and 11U end at the regional level. Winning the 11U tournament qualifies a team for the next year’s 12U World Series, though, spreading out how bids are earned.
Black Hills nearly pulled that off last year, reaching the 11U regional finals in Oregon before falling to a side from Kennewick. That made them have to earn their spot the hard way this summer.
On the field, “hard” is relative — Black Hills went undefeated at both the state tournament in Lacey and the regional tournament in Longview, going 11-0 with a combined run differential of 153-10.
But once they raised that second trophy in Cowlitz County last weekend, they got a grand total of nine days to figure out flights and lodging to Missouri.
“Some teams have known for months, and some teams have known for a year that they’re going to the World Series, so they’ve had a lot of time to fundraise and get prepared for this,” Pohl said. “And here we are, just found out on Saturday that we’re going, and we have nine days to coordinate.”
It’s the second cross-country trip that the squad will go on this summer; Black Hills took part in a national tournament in Cooperstown, N.Y., placing in the top-16 in a field of 76 squads from across the country.
Black Hills is currently set to fly out on Aug. 1, and play its first game on Aug. 4. They’ll play five pool play games in five days, and if they finish in the top two in their group, will advance to bracket play.
The team has set up donation links on its website and its Facebook page.
