2008...The new Utah Marshalls

So lets start out first with the major change for our team...a name change. We are now the Utah Marshalls. We are sponsored by a local charitable foundation named in memory of young man named Marshall who died of a heart problem. The foundation was started to promote youth baseball and to keep his memory alive for his favorite sport. We are lucky to have a great organization to help our team attain many goals.

Now on to baseball. We lost one player at the end of last season, but have added a very good player to take his place. We started the season by going down to the annual March Madness tournament in St. George. Due to the fact that Easter was also this same weekend, we had 3 boys missing to play in a basketball tournament in Vegas. Lucky for us, our coaches found some "adequate" replacements. We picked up 1 local boy and 2-3 other boys that made the trip up from Vegas. Although all our regular boys played a great tournament, it was a great help to have these extra boys join our team. We made it through pool play with a 3-1 record, great pitching and defense and lots of homeruns. Although we had that loss, we were already guaranteed a spot in the playoffs, and went in as an 8 seed. Our hitting and pitching really paid off through the playoffs and led us to our first championship of the season, beating the Idaho Diamondbacks 11-1. Congrats boys on a job well done and thank you to those boys who filled our team.

2007... Big League Dreams

This year was a difficult year for our boys. They only played in a Saturday league, which was nice to not have so many games, but it really showed in their game time performance. They came close in so many tournaments to make it to the championship game, but just fell short. 3rd or 4th was no consolation to these boys. Finally their luck would turn in the Fire Cracker, the one tournament they had never won. They somehow pulled out a big win in the final innings of pool play just to get to the playoffs. In the playoffs they beat the Dingers, the Dirt Dogs and in the championship they beat ReMax Rush 9-6. With one of their pitchers hurt and out of innings, they had some boys really step up and help get them their only Championship of the year.
Although the year was tough, the boys did have some great memories that came along the way. In June they went to Denver for a tournament. Some boys got to enjoy their first major league baseball game, Rockies beat the Astros in a bottom of the ninth come from behind win. They also got to go to Water World and just have a good time.
In July, we all headed to Chino, California for the final tournament of the year. The ballparks were mini replicas of some of the Major League fields. It was a fun tournament, even if the umps didn't know a strike from a ball or if runners were safe or out at any freakin' base. All the boys had fun going to Universal Studios, Disneyland, the beach, and of course all the time we spent together as a team family just hanging out at the pool. We didn't come away with a championship(no thanks to great officiating), but we did come away with fun memories. We ended the season with a 36-14-1 record.

All our boys

2006...Steamboat Springs

Our season got off to an ominous start. We had 1 of our players leave the team and then just days before our first tournament of the year, another got a broken arm. We had to pick up 2 kids to fill their spots, but only for that tournament. I guess our start wasn't so bad, we did beat the Tuff Country Predators to win the March Madness tournament. This would be the first year that we didn't play city league, instead we played in a weekday and a Saturday superleague. Boy did we play a lot of games.
Being short of players we added 2 new player in April and in May. This gave us 11 boys, and that was a good thing since arm #2 was broken (by the same boy). We went on to win the Memorial Day tournament against, you guessed it, the Idaho Falls Mariners.
Next up for us was the Triple Crown qualifier in Herriman. We had to take first or second place in order to get an invitation to the Triple Crown World Series in Steamboat. We made it to the championship game, but lost to the Bangers. Still we knew we were on our way to Steamboat Springs. Our last local tournament before Steamboat, was the Heber Valley Firecracker. After a long rain delay, we took 2nd place.

Off we went to Steamboat Springs, with nothing but stars in our eyes. As it would turn out, we ended up with the #1 seed after pool play. We shocked a whole lot of teams, that this tiny little team from Utah could play some serious ball. It isn't the size of the player that matters, it is the size of his heart. Our boys showed a lot of heart during this tournament, but in the end came out in 9th place. It was a successful trip for baseball, but a great trip for fun with the team family. We tubed the river, jumped off rocks and had hours of fun at the pool and in Sam's huge hotel townhouse/room. I think the boys will always remember this trip, not just for the baseball. And how can anyone forget "the bucket o chicken." Oh yeah, I forgot to mention we ended the season ranked #1 in the nation.

2005 Superleague and City League All-Stars

We decided that we should all play superleague together this year as well as city league. During the week we all played on different teams, but on Saturdays and for special tournaments we were together. We won the Memorial Day tournament against the Idaho Falls Mariners. It was originally rained out, so we had to make it up later in the season.
The first time we played the Mariners was during the Idaho Falls tournament, they had never lost, and our boys surprised them with a late rally to win and we would go on to win the tournament. This will turn into a very big rival for us, but we all respect each other and it is so much fun to play them.
This is our second city league state championship. We beat the Southern Utah Reds 10-0.(Not quite the nail biter from the year before) This was the lead in to the 9 year old minors Pacific Southwest regionals. It was being held at our own ballpark in South Jordan. We had everything going for us, we just needed one last win against Scotsdale, Az. to make it to the Championship game. Well, we fell just short that night,and lost. We ended up taking 3rd place, not quite the end to the season we had hoped for.

The Beginning of Something Great July, 2004

So this is where it all began for most of the boys on our team. Pee-Wee State Champs, 2004. We won a thriller of a game 1-0 vs. SouthEast Valley Allstars. We had to go extra innings, since we were tied 0-0 at the end of 6. Being the visiting team we had to hold them to get the win. As coach Sam said "the baseball gods were on our side that night to come out of a bases loaded no outs situation and win." Well that is just the beginning of what is to come for these boys.