The Junior League team from Cedar American owned the local tournament against locals, but it took a few games for it to find its sweet spot at the Regional Finals in Laguna Niguel, Calif.

Unfortunately, this was a few games too many for the tough Western Region and Cedar American returned home with only a single victory under its belt.

But what a victory.

Going into the tournament, team manager Greg Sanders had his eye on Southern California and Hawaii as the two teams to beat. The first game last Tuesday pitted them against the Hawaiian team from Hilo. They lost the game after Hawaii pushed 11 runs past Cedar’s 1.

The next two days saw games against teams from Post Falls, Idaho and Henderson, Nev.; two teams Sanders felt confident they could beat. Once the smoke cleared, however, errors and rookie mistakes found Cedar American losing twice with identical scores of 4-7.

“In those games it was the errors that killed us,” Sanders said. “We were ahead, but then they would come back to overthrow a base or mess up simple plays. We should have had those games.”

When Friday rolled around Cedar American found itself against the juggernauts from Southern California. Hawaii had the best tournament record at that point with zero losses, but Southern California was still a top team. So much so that Cedar American couldn’t score a run in the entire game while allowing 10 from California before the mercy-kill ending.

Having lost every game so far the team knew they didn’t have a chance to advance to the World Series. Lesser teams may have put it in neutral, but Cedar American went into its final game on Saturday with a new attitude.

“At that point they had been hit really hard,” Sanders said. “But they got back up and went out with a bang.”

Alaska had one loss to Cedar’s three. Cedar had only three base hits in the tournament thus far. All the smart money was on Alaska cleaning up with Cedar and moving on, but Cedar wasn’t about to give up.

In the fourth inning, with bases loaded, Trevor Sanders knocked it out of the park, over a major league-sized wall, bringing in three runs and setting a pace that lasted till the end of the game. The sixth saw three more runs. All-in-all Cedar managed a whopping 17 base hits in the game, converting 13 into runs while allowing only two from Alaska.

“Everyone did amazing in that game,” Sanders said. “Everyone played their best and showed what kind of team they are.”

While a single victory in the regional tournament may be a less than perfect ending to their season, Cedar High School should be excited about its baseball future. In just a couple years these players will be playing high school ball with more experience in big tournaments than most schools in Utah.

“They are a great players and they’re going to bring home state championships and victories,” Sanders said.