The Carson Valley Senior Little League baseball club spent most of its season just looking for teams in their own age group to play.
As the only 15-16-year-old Little League team in the area, Carson Valley was forced to go up against older teams from out of town to get in a full schedule.
Even so, Carson Valley still found itself playing for the state championship over the weekend.
While the team took two tough losses to all-star squads from Las Vegas, manager Mike Wentz said the experience his players gained from the opportunity was priceless.
"It was a great opportunity for the kids," Wentz said. "We didn't have a lot of teams to play in our age group this season.
"We played 16-, 17- and 18-year-olds all year. Our whole roster was 15- and 16-year-olds. They really pulled together and had a lot of fun this season."
Carson Valley captured the District I title with a series win against North Tahoe two weeks ago and rolled into this weekend's state tournament against a number of tough opponents.
On Saturday, they took a 4-1 loss to Central of Las Vegas and then were eliminated by Red Rock Sunday.
"The kids had a great day that first day," Wentz said. "It was a solid defensive performance. We were a pretty well-rounded team all year."
Wentz said Ryan Stanton and Sean Klena pitched well in the two games and were the team's aces all season.
"The teams we lost to this weekend were very well coached and they have a bigger population to draw from," Wentz said.
Wentz also noted catcher Kyle Flagg for his play throughout the season but said he had solid production from the entire lineup. He said Daniel Macauley was a solid pitcher for the team.
The Carson Valley roster was rounded out by shortstop Ryan Woodard, first baseman Trevor Wentz, second baseman Ryan Quenga, outfielders Ethan Gray, Andrew Isherwood and Taylor Tindel, and utility players Nick Olivera and Johnathon Gilkerson. Cody Hayes also played a number of games for Carson Valley during the season. Wentz was joined in coaching the team by Robert Klena.
Both the Carson Valley seniors and juniors (13-14-year-olds) played in the state tournament over the weekend. This was the first year back for both divisions, although the juniors were able to field three teams during the regular season.
"We really hope being back like this generated enough interest to get some of the 12-year-olds to stick around and some of the older kids to come back," Wentz said. "I had a few kids that really wanted to play ball last year and there was no program at all. We brought the Little League program back and we're hoping to build it back up.
"There are plenty of kids in the Valley who still want to play baseball."
-- Joey Crandall can be reached at jcrandall@recordcourier.com or at (775) 782-5121, ext. 212.
