Tournament baseball is all about repetitions, getting the most repetitions of particular skills as possible, as well as experiencing as much variety of situations as possible within a game. 

There are compromises, of course; tournament baseball is played with a time limit in order to maximize the number of games played at the site. Rarely does a tournament game go seven full innings. That does not detract, however, from the competitiveness or the value of such games. 

Alba-Golden and Mineola squared off against Quinlan and Cumby, respectively, last Friday morning up at the Lone Oak Tourney. 

Promptly at 8 a.m., Boogie Trimble lined a pitch to left field for a single to lead off for the Panthers.  With great anticipation, he stole second and third bases, and scored when Mason Smith laid down a beauty of a bunt to the right side. 

Landon Dunham reached after being plunked with a pitch. He would come around to score thanks to a single by Carson Pierce and a fielder’s choice off the bat of Easton Samples.

Trimble would reach again in the third and came in to score on a passed ball. Alba-Golden led 3-1 after three innings of play.

Starter Mason (2 hits, 4 BB, 2 K) pitched 2 and 2/3 innings. He was spelled by Trimble. 

Quinlan put together a big rally in the fourth, picking up six runs and securing a 7-3 win. 

Cason Boyd had the play of the game for Alba-Golden. With two away in the third, he drilled a first pitch to center field for a clean single. Then, on his own accord, he got a great jump on the pitcher and stole second. It was the kind of individual effort play that will win district games in the future.

Beckham Bowker got the start for Mineola against Cumby. He threw five masterful innings (1 hit, 2 BB, 5 K).  In gusty wind conditions, Bowker retained his focus on the strike zone, combining accuracy with just enough variety to keep hitters off balance. 

Mineola put up four runs in the first, one in the third, and three in the fourth to record an 8-0 win.  

The Jackets only managed two base hits on the day – singles by Camden Roberts and Bowker– but those two base hits accounted for three RBIs.  Mineola also scored twice on two sacrifice fly balls off the bats of Lawson Ollive and Wyatt Salonen.

Watching Mineola baseball is an education in the game. The team is taught not just the basics, but also how to leverage the small actions which can bring advantages to the team pitch-by-pitch. Those changes may be tempo-related, or field placement, or efforts to break the opponents’ momentum, but they all build toward recording a win.

The Jackets will be competitive in a strong district, and will leverage every possible advantage in the game of baseball to realize success.