Up until last weekend, Camdenton had never held an open youth baseball tournament. That changed when youth baseball coach Travis Randall and his 9-and-under Laker travel squad hosted the Fun in the Sun Tournament.
Randall started the Lakers this season and says the process of building a team as well as hosting the tournament has been gratifying.
“My son played for the Lebanon Yellowjackets (last year) and I decided I wanted to bring (travel baseball) here,” Randall said. “It’s been an amazing process, and our (teams) families have become a family.”
Randall said that one of the toughest aspects of forming a travel baseball squad is to find families willing to sacrifice their time for the betterment of the team.
“It’s hard, you have to have talented and dedicated players, as well as dedicated families,” Randall said.
Randall said that he had wanted to start a team in Camdenton for a long time, but there were several layers of red tape that had to be cut through first. After creating the team, creating a tournament was next on Randall’s agenda.
“That’s when people recognize you as a true travel team, when you host a tournament,” Randall said.
Not only will hosting a tournament help solidify the squad, the registration fees helped pay for traveling to other tournaments. The Lakers travel throughout the state, and have gone as far the Mickey Owens Baseball School in Miller, Mo.
The Fun in the Sun was a double-elimination tournament that brought five teams from throughout the state to Camdenton, including the the Plato Eagles, the Mid-Missouri Smashers, the Camdenton Blasters, the Camdenton Lakers, and a mixture of players formed from the Camdenton house Little League, that named themselves the Royals.
Randall was excited by the event, saying that at one point they had over 430 people in attendance.
The games started at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday and Randall said that the championship game did not end until after 11 p.m.
He said that he was incredibly proud of the house-league team, which lost its first game of the tournament, and continued to win the next five games in order to make the championship match against the Lakers.
On its roundabout way to the finals, the Royals eliminated three teams from the tournament.
The Lakers also had an interesting route to the championship. Playing the Plato Eagles in an early round, the Lakers were down 5-0, however they did not give up and won 10-5. Later the team found itself trailing 9-1 to the Mid-Missouri Smashers, and again came back for a 13-11 victory. In the championship game against the Royals, the Lakers could not close the deal in regulation, yet won 9-6 in extra innings.
Randall said that watching the kids play in the tournament was a great feeling, knowing that he along with all of the team parents and community had created this tournament.
“The wow factor was huge, and just the support and community, and Laker parents was amazing,” Randall said.
Contact this reporter at lakesports@lakesunleader.com