Six-team field for next week’s Southwest Little League Junior Baseball

Regional at St. Michael’s has three state champions joining host Santa Fe Monsters, the District I winner. Texas East, Texas West and Louisiana are coming to Santa Fe, while Colorado and New Mexico holds its state championships this weekend

ARNIE LESHIN, Santa Fe Today

The Santa Fe Monsters now have company as the field for the Southwest Junior Little League Regional Baseball championship is being assembled for next week’s games to be played at St. Michael’s.

The Monsters, who won District 1 back on July 8th, had quite a wait before state championships were played, with Texas West and Texas East and Louisiana already in the field, and Colorado and New Mexico will decide their representatives this weekend.

This would be the 6-team field, with the winner heading to the International World Series in Taylor, Mich., which has hosted this since junior league began in 1981.

The Land of Enchantment has four district champions in quest of the ride up I-25 to Santa Fe. Playing at the Bob Forest Sports Complex in Carlsbad, it will be La Plaza Las Vegas of District 4 opening with District’s 5

Roadrunner from Albuquerque. That’s game one on Friday that is scheduled to make the first pitch at 6 p.m.

In the contest that follows, it’s Shorthorn of District 6 facing South Valley of District 8. La Plaza and Shorthorn finished first in last weekend’s opening round.

Games will be played on Saturday. In the 6 p.m. match-up, it’s the winner’s bracket, and the game that follows in the loser’s bracket in the double-elimination format. The finals will be Sunday, and if necessary, will continue with a deciding game following.

Play at St. Michael’s is set for Thursday. The lineup at the Christian Brothers Athletic Complex will find the New Mexico champions against Texas West at 9 a.m., and the second game pairs Texas East versus Colorado.

With a first-round bye, the SF Monsters await the New Mexico-Texas West winner for the Friday 9 a.m. contest. The other game has Colorado, also with a bye, going against the Texas East-Louisiana winner.

Its double-elimination, so a team can come out of the loser’s bracket to make the final, but would have to win twice over the entry from the winner’s bracket. The World Series will be played from Aug.13-20.

The Texas West state champion is Abilene Wylie, which follows on the heels of the high school’s first state baseball title. Wylie came out of the loser’s bracket to take two from Alice American, first it was 17-7 and then it was 3-1 in the deciding contest at Kirby Park in Abilene. Wylie’s lone loss (6-5) had come against Alice American on a walk-off home run.

From Texas East will come West University, which split two games with Lufkin before winning the deciding game, 7-1. West had opened play by turning back Lufkin, 6-3, but then lost to Lufkin, 12-4, to bring on the winner-take-all contest.

Louisiana’s state champion is Bogalusa, which came out of the loser’s bracket to turn back Mid City twice, 10-9 and 11-6. Previously, Mid City had won 5-4 over Bogalusa, which opened by overwhelming Alexandria, 25-0.

By Saturday night, the field should be in place.