Little leaguers' second season
By Jim den Hollander
The house league season is over, the all star teams are picked, the coaches are in place - Play Ball. Wisconsin Dells' two newest competitive baseball entries are heading into the competitive portion of their season and if an early full schedule is any indication, they should be ready for when the games really matter. The 11-12 (majors) team is gearing up for the all important road to the Little League World Series which begins for them in Reedsburg at the District 4 tournament beginning on July 10 (see related story). In the mean time, players which just wrapped up their Wisconsin Dells-Reedsburg season on one of three different local teams are already getting used to each other with a busy couple of weeks, filled with practices and competition. Dale Gray Jr., Dan McFarlin and Randy Scott are looking after the coaching for the rookie team. Last weekend, the team made the trip to a tournament in Marshfield and there is no let up this week with exhibition games scheduled against Hillsboro (after press time yesterday), Adams-Friendship (tonight) and Pardeeville (Thursday), all at Rotary Park this week. Game time for each of them is 6 p.m. While this is officially the first season for the team, it was a group thrown together for a tournament in Oregon last year that got the ball rolling for the competitive little league squads. The team will celebrate the first anniversary of that appearance with a return to the Oregon event on July 26. The 9-10 (Minors) are also underway under the guidance of coaches Rob Van Wie, Jeff Fitzwilliams and Jamie Cimaroli. After playing at Portage earlier this week, the locals are scheduled to be at Mauston Thursday night and will get its first tournament test at a Wautoma event on July 12-13. There are also home games (opponents to be announced) scheduled for July 15 and 17 and the team will play its District event at Beaver Dam on July 22. The annual Reedsburg tournament, one of the biggest around will once again be visited by the Wisconsin Dells minors while the majors and Mike Michalsky's Babe Ruth squad are both hoping to get in as well. The minors receive an automatic invite as a returning team while the other two local teams need to wait and see if they can move off of their spot on the waiting list and into the tournament field.