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Gearing up to defend its state championship, the Charleston Fighting Squirrels are eager to get things going
CHARLESTON, Mo. — Hillhouse Park hosts the Senior Babe Ruth Midwest Plains Regional, beginning Thursday evening, as the Charleston Fighting Squirrels World Series title defense begins.
“This is a huge deal for our community,” Charleston head coach Michael Minner said. “We’re going to bring people in; it boosts the economy. People are going to stay in our hotels; they’re going to eat at our restaurants, it’s going to be a big weekend for us. It also gives us an opportunity to play baseball at Hillhouse Park.
“We didn’t play real good in the state tournament, so the best thing this tournament has done is allow us to continue to play baseball. We feel like Hillhouse Park is probably the best facility around, and we’re always excited to showcase it.”
Three Missouri teams represent the field of eight. The Perfectos and the Southeast Tropics join the Fighting Squirrels for a chance to represent the Midwest in the Senior Babe Ruth World Series in August.
Pool play begins on Thursday afternoon, at 11 a.m. Charleston faces East Twins (Minnesota) at 7:45 p.m.
After pool play concludes on Saturday, a single-elimination bracket takes place on Sunday, with the top four teams advancing.
“We know that this was a team that was there last year,” Minner said. “All I’ve done is spoken with their coach and their coach told me that they graduated about half of their guys from last year. So, we got an opportunity to see them at the regional last year. They filled in and probably picked up, they’ve got some young guys that have filled-in some spots, so they’re predominantly 16-17 with a couple of returners.
“It’s not so much about the other team; it’s about what we do. That’s kind of been the thing this summer. When you get in a baseball game at this level, the other team is probably going to put it in play. You’re probably not going to strike everybody out; it’s going to be whoever plays the best defense, whoever gets the timely hits. If we get those timely hits, we win ball games. If we don’t, unfortunately, we haven’t been as successful as we’d like to be.”
Sitting at 19-13, the Fighting Squirrels haven’t been as dominant this season as they are accustomed to being.
Holding onto leads is one area that has been a particular Achilles heel for this team throughout the summer. Five of the Fighting Squirrels losses came when they had a lead entering the fifth inning, as they could not put their opponent away.
Hillhouse Park, however, is a challenging environment to play at, which gives Charleston an advantage, one thing that Minner is well aware of going into its first game.
“We’re hoping for some of the biggest crowds that the Midwest Plains Regional has seen in the past three years,” Minner said. “We’ve had the opportunity to travel around. We’ve been to Iowa, we’ve been to North Dakota, we’ve been to Kansas. We’ve been to some of these places — these other states that are coming here — and we hope that there is 6-700 people on opening night.
“We hope that we play good baseball and hope that we’re going to have a chance to play on Sunday. There’s nothing like playing at home. Playing at Hillhouse Park. It’s going to be our music, our announcer, our people working on the field, and our people in the stands.”
Made up of two divisions, the American and National, Charleston’s consists of Parsons (Kansas), the Perfectos, and East Twins. The National Division features the Southeast Tropics, Wellington (Kansas), the Buckley Bombers (Colorado), and Watford City (North Dakota).