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The KYA Pinto 8 Gold All-Stars won the Texas PONY state championship last weekend and will compete against some of the best teams in the nation this weekend. Pictured are (back row, left to right) Coaches Jimmy Glowenke, David Rich, Jeff Austin, and Pete Wieboldt; (middle row) Kyle Rich, Jimmy Glowenke, Morris Austin, and Joe Caskey; (front row) Curtis Hoyal, Max Engels, Andrew Perez, Benny Wieboldt, James Quillin, Matthew Cavanagh, and Devin Baur. Teammate Cole Rowlett is not pictured. – courtesy photo
While most Keller 8-year-olds have spent their summer vacationing and relaxing, one group has been hard at work making history as one of the town’s top recreational league teams ever. Keller Youth Association’s Pinto 8 Gold All-Stars won a state championship last weekend and are playing in the pinnacle of PONY baseball this weekend with a chance for a national zone championship. The KYA Gold All-Stars defeated the OSO Dawgs of Corpus Christi 14-10 on Saturday to take the Texas State Championship and earn one of two berths in this week’s Pinto South Zone Championship, the highest tournament a Pinto team can reach in the PONY system. The tournament is being held in Schertz, just outside of San Antonio, and brings together the top two teams from Texas, Louisiana, Georgia and Florida. "This is a huge accomplishment," Head Coach Jimmy Glowenke said. "When you put it all to paper and look at what they’ve done in a seven-week span, it’s really unbelievable." KYA Gold has put together a 32-3 record since beginning play together in early June. The team has played in six tournaments and won each of them. Robert Parkey, KYA Pinto Commissioner, said the organization has done some research and cannot find records of any team in KYA’s nearly 50-year history that has had as great success as this summer’s Pinto All-Stars. "We’re really proud of them and everything they’ve accomplished," Parkey said. No team from KYA has won a state championship before, he said, and as this is the first season PONY has held a zone national tournament, no KYA team has had the opportunity to win a national title in the past. To the team’s coaches the success has come as little surprise. The team’s motto all summer has been "Believe" and Glowenke said the team has never stopped believing they can succeed. Assistant Coach David Rich said it’s been a fun experience for the players this summer as they’ve simply continued to work as a team and playing what he called "traditional baseball," sticking to the basics and representing Keller with class. "It’s a great representation of Keller," Rich said. "Keller has had [organized] baseball since 1958 and this is the first time a team has made it to this level. It’s taken a lot of dedication from the players, coaches, parents and fans to get to this point." The zone tournament was scheduled to begin Thursday with round robin play continuing today. The results from the first day of action were not available at press time. The top four teams will advance to Saturday’s bracket play, Glowenke said, where the champion will be decided. No matter the outcome of this week’s tournament, the coaches said they’re proud of what the players have been able to accomplish this summer. Last weekend the All-Stars had to battle the best 16 teams in the state. In the double elimination tournament, they won their first game before falling to Central Austin in the second round. After picking up a 10-4 win over Plainview in the loser’s bracket, KYA Gold avenged the earlier loss beating Central Austin 19-7 and 13-12 in consecutive games. By defeating South Brownsville One in the semifinals, the team earned a spot in this weekend’s zone tournament and the chance for a state bid against the OSO Dawgs. Big bats helped KYA Gold as they have all summer, Rich said. Three players hit over-the-fence home runs in the state tournament, following up a six-home-run performance in the regional tournament the week before. Glowenke said the most impressive thing about KYA Gold’s success is that it’s a team of rec league players, as opposed to a select or club league. "These are all kids that just paid their $110 to play," Glowenke said. "It’s just been a great group of kids that all love each other and have fun." The 12-player KYA Gold team is made up of the all-stars from the league’s Pinto 8 regular season that wrapped up in May. Pinto is a coach-pitch division of the PONY international baseball organization.
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