Monday, July 17, Mayor Ken Tedford hosted the opening ceremonies for the 2023 Pacific Southwest Regionals Cal Ripkin 11U Baseball Tournament in Fallon. What an honor for this grandma to have watched. I have volunteered before and have been selected to help with the score sheets. For one reason or another, I was never able to attend the opening ceremonies. This year seeing the whole Parade of Teams, the welcome address by Mayor Tedford, and the brief fireworks welcoming coaches and the players of the many out-of-state teams was in my opinion nothing short of spectacular. There were 12 teams invited to attend and 10 participated from California, Hawaii, Utah, Arizona, and Nevada. Guam was unable to attend, and one California team had to cancel at the last minute.
There are 3 pools of players A, B, and C. The Pacific Southwest Regional Commissioner, Bob Motta oversees the meeting in March with all the state’s commissioners attending the draw for the pool. Each team is randomly drawn with their state having A, B, or C on their tag, names are drawn then these selected teams are put in their respective pools. Mike Caudillo, Central California State Cal Ripkin Commissioner was selected to head up the Fallon tournament.
Each of the 11U Cal Ripkin Tournament teams had to earn a spot representing their state by winning their All-Star Championship Tournament. Fallon’s 11U team won their spot by beating out Spanish Springs on June 25, with a score of 13-6 coached by Fallon’s own, Justin Judd and Josh McCallum.
California’s 11U last tournament was played July 7, but not confirmed until July 10. From the last tournament date to the opening ceremonies was just one week to be to organize all the moving parts of an event of this magnitude. From making sure that the guest teams have hotel rooms, and restaurants, to having food catered at the Churchill Arts Building for coaches’ and volunteers’ breakfasts and lunches. The local restaurants catering was Telegraph, American Legion, Azteca Grill, Maine Street Café, 3C’s, and the Courtyard. Having the swimming pool open for the players and families to swim after the games and Corn Hole game boards placed in different areas for the families to enjoy was wonderful. Before any of these activities could happen, however, Callie Martinez, Pool, Parks, Gym, and Events Coordinator, had to travel to El Segundo, California in March to lobby for the tournament to be held in Fallon.
This event flows seamlessly because of Mayor Tedford, the Fallon City Council, Callie Martinez, and a 10-member Event Planning Committee along with the City of Fallon’s dedicated employees and interns. Shaw Lee announced every game and did an outstanding job. Callie and her team coordinate all the volunteers for keeping the scorebooks, pitch counts, and running the electronic scoreboard, during the four games a day Monday through Thursday, the two single elimination games on Friday, and culminating in the championship game on Saturday. Cal Ripkin Nevada President, Darrin McKnight, and Andrew Howell, Fallon Youth President have also worked in assisting to make everything run smoothly for the players and the fans. Thank you, Mayor Tedford, and the City of Fallon, for an awesome baseball experience.
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