The Draper’s Utah Vipers 14U baseball team, many who played for years with Southeast Valley Baseball, were runners-up at the Youth World Series Tournament July 27-30 in Reno, Nevada losing to the Rawlings Tigers of Riverside, California 11-10 in the championship game.

The Vipers began the tournament going 0-3 in pool play—being outscored 38-7—before defeating the CBA Broncos (Chino, California) 9-5 and the Turlock (California) Generals 10-5 to begin bracket. After a 16-5 loss to the Rawlings Tigers, the Vipers again beat CBA 7-3 to reach the title matchup with the Tigers.

“We fought hard against teams from all over California, Nevada and Hawaii,” said head coach Gil Ruiz. “We came up one run short in the championship game. We definitely made a name for Utah within the travel ball organization. We had great compliments from other coaches and teams. We are very proud.”

Braylon Ford, Aidan Ashby and Evan Larsen were named to the All-Tournament team while Sebe Baudendistel, Logan Child, Daxton Comstock, Luke Kruckenberg, Aidan Mack, Peyton Ruiz, Michael Schneemann, Porter Slavens, Mason Sluga and Gabe Waldron also played for the Vipers. Ruiz was assisted on the coaching staff by Mark Slavens, JR Child, Pat Schneeman and Colby Ford. (Photos courtesy Gil Ruiz) λ