Sweetwater youth baseball team fulfills late teammate’s world series dream

SWEETWATER, Tenn. (WATE) — Eight-year-old Ace Mason always wanted to play in the DYB World Series. The goal he left behind him was fulfilled by his teammates in the first season after his death.

“It was always his dream,” said Ace’s friend, Hudson Dacus.

“The team he was on was so close last year. I think they finished second in the state and I knew talking to him in lessons when he was coming it was because he wanted to get better he wanted to go to the world series,” said Ace’s former coach, Brian Nile.

“Him passing away we knew we had to go on and go to the World Series,” said Ace’s friend Jansen Melton, “He would love it, he would say, ‘YEAH!’”

“I would say we did it for you buddy,” said Ace’s friend Keegan Nile said. “It’s a great feeling that we’re doing it all for him.”

Representing as Team Tennessee, Sweetwater 10u and 12u will be heading to Bossier City, Louisiana. While Ace isn’t physically with his 10u team, everywhere you look, he still is.

“I can have this with me the whole time and I have marked in my bible, John 3:16, his verse,” Keegan Nile said.

“This thing right here I keep it in my back pocket always I never really take it out ever,” said Melton. “It means that he’s right here with us and its like he’s standing right here behind us and playing the game with us too.”

“I have mine and most of the kids on our team have them and I have on my helmet I have an Ace spade on the side of it,” Keegan Nile said. “It means a lot and just to represent him and to do all this stuff for the game he loved is nice to think about.”

“Before every game we always say 23 on me, 23 on three, 1-2-3 23,” said Ace’s cousin, Hagan Gibby.

Symbols of Ace keep him close to his team, and the community’s heart.

“Seeing some of the pictures, you would look at the clouds and the sun and you would think, ‘there’s something there and I’ve definitely felt it.’ I know my son has felt it. I know Ace’s family has felt it and with the loss it would have been easy just to go away but they come to all the games. They come to the state tournament games for all the age groups and when you’re out there on the field and you see them there it’s very touching,” said B. Nile.

The season for what would have been Ace’s 10u team as well as the 12u squad has been dedicated to Ace, “We carry him in our heart,” said Greyson Dacus, Ace’s friend.

“I know that I’m fighting for my friend, that he would want to be in this position right now,” said Ace’s friend Carter Sils.

And with the teams, “Angel in the outfield,” it’s put them in the position to accomplish one of Ace’s dreams.

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