Squirrels start World Series today

~ The Charleston-based team is playing in its second straight Babe Ruth World Series

CHARLESTON, Mo. -- At a time when most summer baseball teams have already packed up and players are preparing for the quickly approaching school year, the Charleston Fighting Squirrels are set to face their biggest test yet.

They'll try to make their claim for their first ever national championship starting today as they join nine other teams in the Senior Babe Ruth World Series in Ephrata, Washington.

"We hope we start to become a tradition there," Charleston head coach Michael Minner said of the World Series. "We hope that whenever people see the Charleston Fighting Squirrels that they tie that to the World Series. That's our ultimate goal, that when people see us out there it's not a shock."

It's unlikely that there will be any surprised faces this time around. The Squirrels are coming off a deep run in the World Series last season where they pushed their way out of pool play and into the championship round of the tournament.

It was in the quarterfinals that a 2-1 loss to the eventual champions, Gulf Coast, Alabama, ended their season at 52-12.

Though they lost some key players off that squad, they'll make this year's trip with an experienced group that includes returning starters Brad Potts, Ryan Fortner and Cody Payne, among others.

"We have some guys who have been around and some of our new guys have played in some tough games, too," Minner said. "We feel like we have a good core of kids that have some great experience. I thought last year we were a great team, and this year I think we're a great team as well. We just have had to do things a little different.

"Our pitching has been tremendous and is very deep. It was deep last year. too. Our defense has played great. We may not have the firepower we had last year, but offensively I think our production has been good."

Charleston enters the tournament at 40-16 on the year and has had a dominant postseason thus far.

The Squirrels cruised through the Midwest Plains Regional Tournament with a 5-0 record, and their only postseason blemish so far was a loss to Boonville in the first state championship game.

They responded, however, by besting Boonville 3-1 the next day to take home their seventh state title in eight years.

After routing teams most of last season, Charleston's bats went cold in the World Series when it scored three runs or less in all but one game.

"Last year we got out there and had beat everybody around here, but we hadn't played much small ball and other things," Minner said. "So this year we tried to prepare a little more throughout the year to get us ready for whenever we get out there face up against a guy who's throwing 93 to 94 miles an hour.

"We've kind of changed our philosophy and tried to play small ball this year. We've tried to squeak across a couple runs and hope our pitching and defense does it's job."

As part of the American Division in pool play, they'll have their work cut out for them in facing some of the most successful programs in Senior Babe.

This includes last year's champions, Alabama Rawdogs, San Gabriel, California, and host Columbia Basin, Washington. The Tri-Township Falcons out of Pennsylvania round out the division.

"We feel like we're on the tough side," Minner said. "That's good and bad. It's bad in the you're going to have to play great baseball to get out of your pool. At the same, we feel like if we can advance out of our pool things set themselves up well for us to make a run at the championship."

Unlike regionals, where play lasts only four days, Charleston won't be saving it's best arms for last. Instead, the World Series will be spread over eight days, allowing possibly two starts from the top of the rotation.

The Squirrels will face the host Columbia Basin Riverdogs at 10 p.m. today. They follow up with a Saturday contest against San Gabriel Valley, California, at 7:30 p.m. before a Sunday meeting with the Tri-County Township Falcons at 3 p.m.

Their final pool play game comes Monday at 11 a.m. against the Rawdogs.

Three teams from the division will advance to bracket play with the top-seed getting a first round bye.

"Potts will be on the hill in game one," Minner said. "We're going to line our guys up and go to work. You can't afford to have a hiccup or two early. If you go 0-1 or 0-2 in pool play, you put yourself in a bad position. We're going to try to win the first and whatever we have to try to do to win that first game we'll do.

"If that means throwing our best three guys in game one, we're going to go at them and try to win a game at a time. If we get out of pool play hopefully we'll have some pitching left to make a run at the championship."