MVLL Finals Wind Up Successful Season

By NICK YAMASHITA

The Progress

The Moapa Valley Little League (MVLL) announced the championship teams of their 2021 season on Monday, May 24. The season officially ended with the final championship games played on Saturday, May 22.

“I am excited to have concluded a successful season even with the challenges we had,” said MVLL Board member Sarah Wadsworth.

The organization was forced to cancel the 2020 season due to the unexpected shutdown from the COVID-19 pandemic.

League leadership had been apprehensive on how many players would turn out and register for this year’s season, Wadsworth said. But enrollment ended up being high this year.
“We had 211 total players this season,” said Wadsworth.

The Champions for the Coach Pitch League were the Dodgers under the leadership of Coach Wayne Evans, winning the championship game 12-0.

“I’m very proud of this team and all the hard work that they put in,” said Coach Evans. “It’s awesome and rewarding to take a random group of kids and have them all making plays, hitting the ball, and playing as a team by the end of the season.”

The Champions for the Minor League were the Dodgers. They were led and coached by Gerritt Schouten. The Dodgers won their championship game 13-3 over the Padres.

“The Dodgers began this year with not a whole lot of experience,” Coach Schouten said. “We had boys that had never played before and others who had played very little. As coaches, we ran many long hours of practice and worked the boys pretty hard. The boys’ parents were very supportive and dedicated to their boys’ success. The Dodgers didn’t like losing, but the few times they did, they came back with more fight and desire, which resulted in a tremendous season. Hard work and love of the game paid off.”

The Major League title was claimed by the Braves, who played the last of the Championship games. They won 10-6 over the Cubs under the direction of Coach Tavish Millett.

“I am very proud of this team!” Coach Millet said. “The boys worked hard this year and came a long way throughout the season. We came out fired up tonight. We got our bats going early, and all of the boys were hitting well.”

Millet gave credit to the younger boys on the team. “This has been a really fun team to coach,” he said. “The younger boys came up and held their own with an outstanding group of older boys. This is a very talented group of boys, and they are going to be fun to watch as they get older.”

All boys on the Championship teams were given gold medals and plenty of photo opportunities with their team, coaches, and parents.

A monstrous thank you to the Moapa Valley Little League Board members for the year; Gene Houston, Margaret Houston, Kacey Martino, Sarah Wadsworth, Rachelle McCombs, Jim Pettingill, Angelo Moreno, Darrell Moffatt, and Justin Williams.

“MVLL would like to extend a huge thank you to all those who volunteered their time and talents to a successful season,” said Wadsworth. “The league would not be possible without these people and the MVLL board members. If you would be interested in helping better our league, please reach out to one of our current board members or contact us on our Facebook page.”