Weather was in the upper 60's and spirits were high as this year’s Southern Plains All Stars ventured into Kansas for tournament play.  The 12-year-old team coached by Dayne Eaton, Stacy Uhland, and Joe Chadwick are in their final campaign together since the nucleus came together as 9-year-olds. 

On this beautiful day in Garden City, Southern Plains first battled the all-stars from Elkhart. The strong pitching performance from Devin Eaton allow one run through three innings and multiple hits from Spencer Uhland (3) Devin Eaton (3) and Truman King (3) racking up 16 runs and ending the game early on the ten-run rule. 

The second game in pool play matched up with the seasoned Perryton, TX, team. Case Nelson carried the load with multiple strike outs (6) and the SP bats gave another electric performance at the plate. Multiple hit game for Poncho Saenz and Truman King with 3 hits while Devin Eaton, Spencer Uhland, Kadan Dunlap, and Case Nelson racked up 2 apiece. Southern Plains looked very offensive in the 16-4 win.  Winning the pool crown with 2-0 record.  With the cool weather and spirits high Southern Plains volunteered to play an add on game with the Backyard Ballers from Gymon, OK.  This game started out splendid for Southern Plains building an 8-2 lead, but the game would turn ugly as the error bug began to bite. This game ended with the Gymon group mounting a comeback in the final inning and beating the SP Allstars 10-9. "We were playing our third game in a row and just ran out of gas.  We lost some focus and they had some timely hits at the end." explained Coach Dayne Eaton in the post-game interview. 

Sunday morning rainstorm pushed games back a couple hours. SP was raring to go with the #1 seed. The waiting game for 12-year-old boys is exhausting. The first opponent was the Panhandle Sox.  An elite travel team with players from Liberal, Boise City, Turpin, and surrounding area. This team boasted a pitcher with upper-level fastball speed.  Southern Plains was ready to get on them early and did racking up 6 runs in the first inning. The Sox could not save their fireball pitcher for championship and inserted him in the second inning. The experienced Sox team chipped at the lead with Case Nelson getting out of trouble numerous times with some excellent fielding from the infield group led by Stockton Mitchek. Going into the final inning the Panhandle Sox were able to push across the go-ahead run and things look pretty bleak for the SP All-Stars. In the bottom of the fifth with time limit reached. Damion Molina went down swinging, Devin Eaton had a line drive over the first baseman, stole 2nd base, Truman King popped out to Centerfield, and Eaton advanced to 3rd on a pass ball. With pressure on and the tie run on 3rd and two strikes Case Nelson hits a shot down third base line scoring Eaton and winning run on first. Nelson advanced to 2nd on a passed ball. Striding to the plate was Spencer Uhland who scorched one to the short stop which was too hot to handle and was safe at first base. Poncho Saenz had the hit of the day to right fielder and Case Nelson was sent home for a close play at the plate. He was safe and Southern Plains pulled off the upset and a ticket to the championship. 

In the championship game, Backyard Ballers from Gymon, OK, would also pull off an upset of the hometown Garden City Sluggers. The humidity was turned up and so was the action. Bats were hot for both teams and the score was knotted at 3-3. Pitching for Southern Plains was Poncho Saenz. As the game wore on it was evident that pitcher's arms were getting worn down as SP used Eaton, Uhland, and King.  The Ballers hits seemed to find the holes and SP hits seemed to be right at defenders. It was close until the end, but the Backyard Ballers prevailed by a score of 9-4. 

Coach Eaton boasted later, "We have come to these Kansas tournaments for years and always find tough competition. This group really played well and made some amazing plays. We hit the ball well and had a lot of fun. We plan to do it all again next weekend." 

Southern Plains next action is against the East-Central All Stars on Wednesday in Burlington 6:00 p.m. and then back to Garden City June 29-30 for the "Load the Bases" tournament.

A tournament July 5-6 in Las Animas will conclude the season.