Three of the Levelland Youth Baseball League teams are headed to the state tournament in the Cal Ripken division of the Babe Ruth league following the district tournament. The tournament will be held in Levelland.
The Levelland Rookies, ages 7 to 8, and Majors, ages 11 to 12, took first place in the district tournament to advance to the state tournament. The Minors, ages 9 to 10, placed third in the district to advance to state as well.
The Rookies won all four games to claim the first-place district title.
Friday, the Rookies secured a 19-6 win over Muleshoe and Saturday they won against Sudan 9-3 as well as Littlefield 5-2. On Saturday, the Rookies were cutting it close but overcame and showed out to walk it off with a Ramiro Delcampo 2out single in the bottom of the fifth to secure the West Texas District 3 title.
The Rookies received the No.1 seed in the state tournament.
The Minors won their Wednesday game against Littlefield with a 14-3 win as Kulson Salinas drove in four runs with an inside the park grand slam. Unfortunately, adversity struck Friday and Saturday as the Minors lost their last two games of the tournament weekend to Olton with a close score of 5-6 as Javier Martha struck out ten batters. The Minors then lost to Shallowater 0-6.
The Minors placed third in district but still received a bid to compete in the state tournament.
The Majors, like the Rookies, won all four games this weekend as well to sweep the league and gain a first-place district title. Wednesday, the Majors beat Muleshoe 10-1 with the help of a Ryan Franco double and Hunner Tomasini triple. Thursday, the Majors won big over Sundown 18-2.
Friday and Saturday, the Majors won a big victory against Shallowater with a score of 16-1 on Friday as Easton Blewett hit at every at bat he had with two singles and one double. On Saturday, Nehemiah Saucedo hit two home runs for a total of three runs to help the Majors gain a 11-0 win to obtain the West Texas District 3 first place title.
The Levelland Youth Baseball League will be hosting the state tournament from June 24-21 at the Levelland-Oxy Sports Complex.
Multiple of the Levelland players across all three teams received All-District team recognition, which is based on their standings after all the games concluded. These players include: Rookies: Radek Dukatnik and Manuel Gallardo Minors: Javier Martha, Rylan Silva and Luke Lopez Majors: Easton Blewett, Lucian Bartels, Mason Swain and Nehemiah Saucedo The state tournament will consist of 44 teams across the state of Texas. Texas is in the Southwest Region. The first and second place team in each division will move on to the regional round of the tournament.
The regional round of tournament play will be held in Monroe, Louisiana from July 13-18. The schedule for the first round of the tournament for Levelland teams is as follows: Rookies: June 18 at 7 p.m. against Pampa on the red field and the winner will play the winner of Andrews vs. Littlefield on June 20 at 9 a.m.
Minors: June 18 at 5 p.m. against Plainview on the orange field and the winner will play Andrews.
Majors: June 18 at 9 p.m. against Seminole on the black field and the winner will play the winner of Andrews vs. the winner of Amarillo and Canyon.
The Babe Ruth 13- to 16--year-old league will begin their district tournament the same week. No.3 Levelland will begin play at Levelland High School baseball fields against No.7 on June 17 at 8 p.m. The winner will play the winner of Shallowater vs. Olton and the loser will play the loser of the same game.