Dickinson 9YO, 11YO Mustangs take second-place in state tourneys
Jul. 31—NORTH DAKOTA — Youth league has come to a close after a series of state tournaments across North Dakota over the weekend, and a couple of Dickinson teams had solid showings in their respective age brackets.
Two of the teams, the 9YO Mustangs and the 11YO AA Mustangs each finished second in their divisions and the American Legion Pony Express finished up their season along with the Cavalry to close out the schedule.
For the 9YO Mustangs team, they went 0-2 in pool play at Jack Hoeven Stadium before entering the bottom-half of the bracket with a resounding 11-1 win over the Williston Oilers in round 1. A thrilling, 7-5 win over the Minot Aces followed that result in the second round and a 3-2 nailbiter win over the Mandan Mavericks sent the Mustangs to the championship game against the Fargo Blues AAA team, where the Mustangs were upended by the Blues, 9-8 in a championship thriller.
The 10YO team also started off with a rough 0-2 record in pool play in Bismarck at the Stefonek Complex, and the bracket was not in their favor on the day, with Dickinson losing in the first round, 805, to the Fargo Reds and getting bounced from the tournament early.
For the 11YO AA team, they went 2-1 in pool play to open the tournament and then topped the Fargo AA Reds in round 1, 12-10. But they lost in the championship game against Valley City, 8-2, with Valley City earning the AA State Champion trophy at Chahinkapa Field. Dickinson had no team in the 11YO AAA category.
The 11YO AA team's head coach, Tyler Schlosser, who has been coaching the last three years with Micah Birch in the program, said the results are solid for Dickinson in the state dynamic.
"They've all been amazing," Schlosser said. "It's a big feat for them (the 11YO team) because they had finished third at state when they were 9 and didn't place when they were 10 and now they finished second at state.
"The 9-and-under team also finished second and that was two of the four — 9-, 10-, 11-, and 12-year-old age groups — in the top-2 in the state and that's pretty good for our town."
Dickinson had no team in the 12YO AA category, either, but the 12YO AAA team started out with a 5-2 win over the Fargo AAA Blues at Elmwood Park in Fargo. Dickinson was overthrown by the Minot Aces, 7-4, in round 2, which sent them to a consolation game and they earned a 12-8 win over Jamestown in that contest.
The Babe Ruth League Dickinson Cavalry 13YO team had a decent weekend with a 7-2 win over the Fargo AA Reds in round 1 at Oxford Park in Grand Forks. That solid win was followed by a tough 11-1 loss in the second round of the tournament to the hometown Grand Forks Royals, sending the Cavalry to the losers' bracket. The Cavalry tipped the Mandan Veterans, 10-7 and then topped the Bismarck Capitals, 5-1, in the first two rounds of the losers' bracket, but were bounced from the tourney with a 14-0 shutout loss to the West Fargo Rattlers, who came out of the bracket to win the championship over their fellow-Fargo team, the AAA Blues with 8-2 wins in game one of the championship round and 2-1 in game 2.
In the 14YO division, the Babe Ruth Pony Express came out of the gate in the second round with a 12-11 win over the Jamestown Eagles at Aafedt Stadium in Williston before being thumped by the West Fargo Rattlers' 14YO team, 13-1, sending them to the losers' bracket, where the Pony Express lost to the Mandan Veterans in a 9-8 heartbreaker.
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