Ganado starts state tourney

By Michael Brooks

Staff Writer

    When the Ganado Major Little league softball team advanced to the State tournament last season, they were the smallest town there by more than 1,600 people. This year, things are a little different. Columbus, the team that won the Texas East state title last season returns to the state tournament. The population of Columbus is just over 3,600.

    Huffman, another team to return to the state tourney is far and away the largest town with a population over 11,000.

    This season Kountze joins Ganado to round out the four teams in the state tournament. According to the last population poll (2016), Ganado has three more people than Kountze with 2,102 compared to 2,099.

    The state tournament is a double elimination and Ganado will open the tournament against Columbus. Although they are a tough opponent to open against, ganado is looking forward to the challenge.

    “Columbus doesn’t look like they have improved from last season, and I believe we have,” head coach Heath Bures said. “Giving them a L to open the tournament would be huge.”

    Ganado has been on a run since tournament play began. Between the eight games they played in District and Sectional tournament play they only gave up three runs and had 10-run-rule victories in seven of the eight games.

    Ganado will play Columbus tonight at 6 in Seguin. Game two will be on Saturday, with game three on Sunday and the championship game on Monday.

    The team that wins state will move on to the Southwest Regional tournament which will be held in Waco this year and will begin on July 25. The Southwest Regional tournament will consist of a team from Colorado, Louisiana, New Mexico, Texas East, and the team that wins the State tournament that Ganado is playing in.

    Once the teams get passed the state tournament, things really get bumped up a notch.

    “The kids have been ready to get back to this stage all year and show what they can do,” Bures said.

    At the Southwest Regional tournament, the games are televised and it is the final step before advancing to the Little League World Series.

     **We will have an article detailing how the games over the weekend went, with quotes from the girls on the team, in the next Jackson County Herald Tribune newspaper and we will do our best to keep the faceback page updated with scores as the game progress.