Knights take 2nd at state

Despite a rough start, the Green River Knights American Legion Baseball team took second at the state tournament in Lovell last week.

While the team was able to edge out Lovell 6-5 in their first match last Tuesday, which head coach Stub Hatfield attributes to a three-run home run hit made by Brendan Hopkins. That narrow game led to the Knights first run-in with the Cody Cubs.

“It was ugly,” Hatfield said about the game.

The Cubs defeated the Knights 16-1, sending Green River to the losers bracket. Hatfield said the team made eight errors during that game, often with runners on bases capitalizing on those errors.

The Knights would meet up with the Lovell Mustangs a second time after their defeat to Cody. Hatfield said the team struggled to get hits off of the Mustangs until their coach switched to a faster pitcher.

“As soon as they brought that pitcher in, I was like, ‘oh boy, you messed up,’” Hatfield said. “The faster the pitching, the better off we are.”

After the substitution was made, Green River capitalized and started racking up the hits, including a three-run home run by Isaiah Munoz. The Knights defeated the Mustangs 11-8.

Their next opponent were the Evanston Outlaws, whom the Knights were able to beat 15-2. During that matchup, Munoz hit his third grand slam of the season. Munoz and the other two top hitters, Tyler Vendetti and Hopkins scored 10 runs during the game. After another win over the Gillette Rustlers 16-6, Green River faced their foes from Cody at the championship game. Clawing their way through the loser brackets, the Knights played a number of double headers to get to the championship game.

“Once you’re in the loser bracket, you got a lot of baseball to play,” Hatfield said.

Playing against the Cubs, Hatfield said the Knights were able to get 20 hits off of Cody, but were unable to string hits into scoring runs throughout the game.

Additionally, the Knights made a few critical errors that left 10 Cody runners in scoring position. Cody would defeat the Knights 10-3, winning the state title.

After the tournament, Vendetti, Munoz, and Hopkins were named All-State while the team’s manager, Brad Hatfield, was named Manager of the Year.