BELOIT — Josh Dailey said it may take a while before the Beloit Bombers 12U Blue baseball team truly appreciates the opportunity it had over the weekend.
The Bombers battled their way into the championship game of a tournament Sunday, earning the right to play on the Field of Dreams diamond in Dyersville, Iowa.
“I’m not sure how many of those kids have even seen the movie (“Field of Dreams”),” said Dailey, who is one of the coaches of the Bombers. “There were some tears and I think they just were just bummed out getting that far and then losing (15-0). But they’ll be able to appreciate it a lot more down the road sometime when they’re a little older. It’s going to be a lifetime memory.
“I think the coaches and the parents already appreciate it. We’re proud of the kids for getting to that point and experiencing that atmosphere.”
The Bombers field a pair of 12U teams and both participated in the 18-team tournament. The 12U Red team won its first game of the season on Saturday, advancing to Sunday play, going 1-4 overall.
The original tournament schedule called for Friday play, but it was rained out.
“That condensed the tournament,” Dailey said. “Between the Blue and Red teams, Saturday we played at 8 (a.m.) o’clock, 10, noon, 2 (p.m.) and 4. Then we had a little break and they had a skills competition on Saturday night at the Field of Dreams. All the earlier games were on different community fields.”
The Blue team was 3-0 in pool play and won a pair of games on Sunday, rallying in the semifinals to reach the title game.
“We played back-to-back-to-back Sunday at three different parks,” Dailey said. “We would play, get in the car and drive about a half hour to the next park, warm up for 10 minutes and then be focused to play again. Then we’d do the same thing again. By the time we got to the championship game I think the kids were exhausted. That’s a lot of baseball for two days.”
The final two games, the Bombers trailed by two runs in both going to the bottom of the fifth inning.
“In both games we scored four runs in our last at-bat to take the lead,” Dailey said.
Dailey said it was a good thing the Bombers have a number of quality pitchers because they were all on a pitch-count according to tournament rules.
“Playing that many games wears you down and by the championship game we didn’t have anyone fresh to put on the mound,” he said. “They had all thrown quite a bit. We also ran into a really good team from Lannon (Wis.) in the championship game. They hit the ball hard and fielded everything. You had to tip your hat to them. Now (the Bombers) know they have to work a little harder to get to that level.”
Dailey said there were a lot of memorable moments during the tourney.
In the game that advanced them to the title game, the Bombers had rallied to take a 7-5 lead against the Missouri Prospects. The Prospects were coming off a 5-1 victory over Monroe (Wis.), the team Beloit had lost to in extra innings in the Wood Bat Challenge at the Stateline Family YMCA Youth Complex the weekend before.
“We had hoped to play Monroe and get some revenge, but we ended up getting revenge for them,” Dailey said. “There was a little controversy. First of all, we had taken the lead after five innings and then the hour-and-a-half time limit expired so the game should have been over. But the umpire decided to finish the game and let them bat. So if we’d have lost our chance to play at the Field of Dreams because of that decision, that would really have been bad.
“Each pitcher is allowed to throw 85 pitches in one day according to the tournament rules. You’re required to tell the umpire how many pitches he’d thrown each inning and he keeps track. Our pitcher, Andrew Valdez, had thrown 81 pitches according to our count and had struck out the first two batters in the sixth inning and had one one strike on the next. All of a sudden someone in their dugout who was keeping track said Andrew had thrown 89 pitches. In the end, the umpires made us take him out. So we brought in Maddux Larson and he got the guy to hit a little pop-fly to Andrew at third for the third out.”
Prior to that drama, the Bombers had runners on second and third with two outs in the bottom of the fifth inning down a run with slugger Izaiah Hall coming to the plate.
“I was just praying with first base open they would still pitch to him,” Daily said. “They did and he just ripped a shot to the fence and we scored both runs to take the lead. Then we got another hit and another run.”
The weekend didn’t close out quite the way they hoped. Larson and Tommy Thompson, who had combined on a shutout earlier in the tournament, were roughed up a bit by Lannon. The Bombers settled for second-place rings.
“Three or four times during that championship game I told the kids to just turn around and look where you’re playing and soak it in,” Dailey said. “Things aren’t going your way, but you get to play on the Field of Dreams. It’s pretty cool to be here.”
Dailey and Joe Valdez serve as managers/coaches for the two 12U Bombers teams. The other coaches for the Blue team are Fred Stewart, Derek Larson and Josh Warden. The other coaches for the Red team are Brandan Letheby, Brian Ross and Paul Dailey.
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