Quay County Little League All-Stars win district title

link Quay County All-Star Bryce Merrill nears second

base and watches for the go ahead signal during

Thursday’s District 3 Championship game in Tucumcari.

Thomas Garcia

QCS Senior Writer

The Quay County All-Stars 9-10 year-old Little League baseball team (3-0) will be playing in the state sectionals on July 17-19 at Bayard.

“The kids are very excited to play at sectionals its a big accomplishment for them to be there,” said Ricky Ragland, team manager.

The Quay All-Stars advanced to the sectional rounds following a controversial 14-13 District 3 Championship win Thursday over the Roosevelt County All-Stars in Tucumcari.

There was a protest filed over the loss of the that game, but it has been denied by Williams Sport, the Little League headquarters for the United States, said Stephen Swift, president of Roosevelt County Little League.

The game ended in the top of the sixth when the umpire called the final out after a Roosevelt All-star batter had apparently thrown his bat after hitting the ball.

“The official had warned the team before and they didn’t listen,” Burns said after the game. “We are going to focus on preparing for the next round.”

Swift said the protest was filed because the umpire ruled that a batter was out for throwing his bat. He said there is no rule in the Little League that states an umpire can call the batter out for that action.

Swift said he filed a protest with the district office, which was passed on to the regional headquarters in Waco, Texas, where officials passed it on to the national headquarters, which ruled the game was over due to the protest not being filed on field.

He said the reason the protest was denied is that a protest must be filed with the umpire while they are on the field; the umpire had already stepped off the field.

The warning for the Roosevelt All-Stars came during the fifth inning, when they cut the Quay All-Stars’ lead after scoring six runs, leaving Quay County with a 14-12 lead.

Roosevelt’s All-Stars were able to shut out the Quay All-Stars in the bottom of the fifth inning and brought the game within one run before the umpire called the final out.

Swift said before the last out was called, the tying run had crossed home plate with a runner on second base. He said there is no way of knowing if that runner would have score or if the Quay All-Stars would have gone into the bottom of the sixth inning with a must score situation. If the Roosevelt All-Stars would have won the game, there would be a final game to determine the district championship Friday in Portales.

Swift said he hate that these kind of things happen because its all about the kids and they want to keep playing. He said its was a bad situation and someone had to come out of it on the bottom.

The Quay All-Stars have a bye the first day and will play their first game at 10 a.m., on July 18, said coach Billy Burns.

Burns said should the team win or lose they will play again at either 10 a.m., or 3 p.m. on July 19.