Dallas Tigers Sanchez 12U traveled west 560 miles to the mountain village of Ruidoso, New Mexico again this year to play in the King of the Mountain USSSA Global State Tournament over Memorial Day weekend. The effects of the 8,000 foot altitude in Ruidoso were felt by the short traveling squad of 9 players, but they battled through the thin air to come away as the champions in the Silver division for the second straight year. Meeting up with teams from Midland, Amarillo, Albuquerque, Odessa and Abilene out of the 27 team field, the Dallas Tigers went 4-0-1 for the weekend.
Down by a run and three outs from elimination in their first bracket game, the team rallied behind a two-strike safety-squeeze by Garrett Walker followed by a steal of home by Charlie Barker on a suicide squeeze attempt to propelled them to a walk-off win. Hot bats, great defense, a solid pitching from Ethan Elliott and Oliver Overlin in the semi-final and championship games resulted in 12-2 and 8-2 victories to secured the unique King of the Mountain championship belt and individual rings for the back to back titles. In 3 bracket play games, the team combined for 29 hits, including 5 doubles, 2 triples and an inside-the-park home run by Mitchell Ray.
After a slow start this Spring, the group is really finding its identity and starting to gel as a team. This was the second tournament victory in a row finishing off an awesome month of May.
