Its play ball in the Little League Junior Baseball Regional at St. Michael’s as New Mexico state champion Shorthorn completes the 6-team field

Play begins Thursday morning, but host Santa Fe gets a first-round bye along with Colorado, with Texas East, Texas West and Louisiana also in the field

By ARNIE LESHIN, Santa Fe Today

The field is now full for the 6-team Little League Junior Baseball Regional that will make its first pitch Thursday morning at St. Michael’s ballpark in Santa Fe.

Shorthorn LL, from Carlsbad, is the final entry and New Mexico state champion after playing both the first round and state championships games on its home base at the Bob Forest Sports Complex.

It went 1-0 in the first round after drawing a bye, and went 3-0 in the championship round by turning back the challenges of North Valley LL twice, and by the La Plaza LL of Las Vegas, with respective scores of 4-2, 15-8, and 13-0 in the final over North Valley.

But Shorthorn might also be faced with a dilemma, a positive one, as its senior league baseball team plays in its region final tomorrow against the winner of tonight’s match-up of Texas East and the host team from Seguin, Tex. It is 3-0 and has won by identical 11-1 scores twice, and over Texas East of Houston, 10-5. The host team was at the losing end of one of the 11-1 scores.

In Santa Fe, the juniors complete the field of Texas West from Abilene Wyle LL, Texas East from West University LL, Colorado from High Plains LL, Louisiana from Bogalusa LL, the host team composed of the District 1 champion Santa Fe Monsters, and Shorthorn.

Texas West will lead off Thursday at 9:30 against Shorthorn, while Santa Fe gets a bye and plays the winner. In the other opening-day contest, it’s Texas East versus Louisiana at noon, with Colorado receiving the bye.

The quest of all is advancing to the Junior League International World Series in Taylor, Mich., the site of all these games since they began in 1981.

Now Shorthorns seniors need one more victory to gain the Regional played in Easley, S.C. On their roster is Brady Tucker, whose dad, Tony, is the manager of the junior team that has his brother, Garrett, in the lineup.

So Shelly Tucker, their mom and the manager’s wife, has her itinerary all mapped out.

“If the seniors win their regional,” she said, “I’m heading for Easley, South Carolina. And if they lose there, I’ll be going to Santa Fe to support my husband, Garrett, and the juniors. The problem is that both teams are playing on the same dates.”

There’s more family news regarding this because the senior team manager is Mike Echazarri and his sons, Anthony and Josh, are on that team while the younger Jacob plays for the juniors.

It’s a dilemma, yes, but a good one, one that is much better than not having the two teams still playing at this level.

Manager Tucker also lists two former star players from Carlsbad, James Brantcher and Tim Perry, as assistant coaches. But his wife Shelly has more traveling to do than any of them.

If you want favorites in the junior regional, you can’t go wrong with either Texas representatives. It’s a state that is tournament tough, but with not a single pitch thrown so far, everybody starts at 0-0.