Just wanted to Blog about sports that relates to Keller, and news that you won’t find in the local newspaper.

This weekend at TCU there was a baseball tournament, but not just any tournament. It was the Connie Mack Regional Qualifier. Teams that won their respective state tournaments faced off for the privilege to play in Farmington, NM at the Connie Mack World Series.

Everybody is aware of the Little League World Series, but those boys are 12 years old and in my opinion don’t even play real baseball. Tight bases (no leading off), shorter than normal basepaths and pitching distances. Jump ahead 6 years in those young men’s lives and you have the Connie Mack World Series. It’s for 18 and under teams from qualifiers all over the nation and Puerto Rico.

Saturday the Dallas Mustangs faced off against the Dallas Baseball Academy (DBAT) team. DBat had yet to lose a game in the tournament while the Mustangs had one loss. In order for the Mustangs to win, they would need to double dip DBat to advance to the World Series.

Select Baseball in the D/FW metroplex is a major deal. Some of the best teams and athletes in the nation play here during the summer months. These kids give up thier summers to play the game they love and to both impove thier game and get exposure in front of college and pro scouts.

The Dallas Mustangs is the Grandaddy of Select Teams in D/FW, and they have a reputation that is one of the best in the nation. DBat is a relatively young organization in comparison.

So, why is this important on a Keller blog?

The Dallas Mustangs had two local players, Kaleb Merck who will be a senior at KHS and has verbally committed to TCU, and Jerod Stafford, an ’07 KHS Graduate who will attend and play ball for Dallas Baptist.

DBat has one local player, Nicholas Miller, an ’07 KHS Graduate who will attend and play ball for El Paso Community College, he is also my son.

These young men who are teammates and good friends faced off Saturday in what ended up being two great games.

Chase Reid (Southlake ’07 Grad, Vanderbuilt) pitched his heart out in the first game to get the win for the Mustangs 2-1 even though Chad Bettis (Lubbock Monterey ’07 Grad, Texas Tech) pitched an equally impressive game, DBat just couldn’t manufacture enough runs.

The second game Stafford (Keller HS, DBU) started for the Mustangs and didn’t get off to a good start. DBat jumped out ahead 3-0 and then extended that lead to 6-1 when David Dala Chappelle (Coppell, NCTC) relieved Stafford. Adam Boydston (Lake Dallas HS valedictorian, UTA) pitched 5 great innings for DBat

The Mustangs came back in the 5th to make the score 6-4 and had the momentum. DBat relievers held the Mustangs off and DBat won the game with a strikeout in the bottom of the 7th.

The DBat players will fly out of Love Field on Thursday all expenses paid for the trip to Albuquerque where they will be met by a charter bus that will have a police escort for their trip into Farmington. Once there, they will stay with host families, have a parade in their honor and compete against the best 18U teams in the nation for the title of National Champions.

The games are attended by upwards of 4,000 people and the whole town basically shuts down for a week to put this tournament together that they have been hosting since the early 60′s.