MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette correspondent Wyatt Bair strikes out during batting practice for the West End Babe Ruth 14-16 age group on Monday at Logue Field. The team is preparing for the Babe Ruth World Series in Branson, Mo., the first week of August.
West End’s Lucas Naughton has seen this time and time again this summer at the Pennsylvania state tournament or the Mid-Atlantic Regional. When a team playing West End had a one- or two-run lead, they gained confidence against the Williamsport All-Stars.
However, Naughton and his teammates knew their opponents were celebrating too soon. West End has the chance to turn every inning into an offensive outburst, and that’s exactly what has happened every time so far this year.
A one or two run deficit for West End could turn into a six-plus run lead in the blink of an eye. That’s something that can happen to West End at any time, and it makes the team dangerous.
“Teams were excited when they got a run or two, but I had no doubt that we couldn’t come back and score four runs in that inning (and answer),” said Naughton.
Naughton and West End won the Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship in late July, securing a spot in the Babe Ruth World Series for 13-16 year olds in Branson, Missouri. That tournament begins Saturday with a pool play competition.
West End has a strong lineup that can hit anywhere from the first batter to the tenth batter. The team has no weak spot. When asked what the team’s greatest strength is, Naughton, Wyatt Bair and Mason Hess all answered the same thing.
The crime.
“Definitely,” said Bair with a smile.
Naughton sensed that West End had the potential to be a great team at the team’s first All-Star practice of the year. He saw it from the first meeting.
“Well, actually from the first training (we knew we had a good team). We beat BP and the kids hit the ball all over the field,” said Naughton. “Everyone hit the ball particularly hard, I had no doubts.”
Before West End played its first game of the inaugural tournament, West End manager Marc Hess called his team together and told them they could hit 1-10. He wasn’t just an optimistic coach. He knew how good this lineup was.
“We actually told the kids before our very first game that we could combine the boys from one to ten in any way we wanted,” said Hess. “Like I said, if you bring in four guys that are starting off the bench, you can use them and they’ll come in as leadoff batters, they’ll come in as No. 4 batters and they’ve had good results, too.”
While the team’s strength lies in hitting, the team is solid across the board. The team can throw well, hit well, and field well. All in all, West End is a solid team in the Babe Ruth World Series this year.
“Right now, they’re playing very good team baseball overall. That’s always a problem when you get a group of kids from different areas together. But the positive is that nine of these kids come from the Hepburn Lycoming Little League, so they’ve played together for years since they started doing T-ball and coach pitching.” said Hess. “When you bring in these other kids who have played together in regular season travel ball in the West End, they really come together well as a team.”
“We trust that every single player in the lineup will contribute,” Mason Hess from the West End added.
West End scored double-digit runs in all four of its games in the Mid-Atlantic Regional tournament and 10 or more runs in three of its four games in the Pennsylvania State tournament. The competition gets better with each new tournament, but the results for West End seem to be the same: dominant wins.
The only team that could hold West End to single digits this postseason was Altoona in the state tournament, which defeated West End 7-0.
“I definitely knew we were a good team, like I said, but I never thought we would go there and beat the opponent by 10 runs,” said manager Hess. “They’re pretty much all state champions at this level and it was definitely a very good performance, both offensively and pitching-wise.”
West End has defeated its eight opponents so far this summer by an impressive 97-12 score. The teams at the Babe Ruth World Series no doubt know they have to try to slow West End down, but that’s easier said than done.
