Milk River Baseball season ends

The Milk River Bambino Baseball League season ended last Wednesday, June 30, at Trafton Park.

This year's league featured 100 tee-ball and baseball players from age four to 13.

"That was good," Milk River Bambino Co-ordinator Dean Yeadon said of the season. "I didn't know what to expect because last year we did not do it."

Last season was cancelled due to the threat of the COVID-19 virus, which shut down most sporting events in 2020.

"When you skip a year, you never know," Yeadon said. "Baseball is not the biggest attraction here in Malta, but I was pleasantly surprised with the numbers that we had."

The league had four full Tee-Ball Teams, three full baseball teams in the seven-to-nine age group, and enough in the 10-to-13 age group to field a game-type experience every week, a total of nine teams.

Yeadon also notices several first-timers while he coached throughout the season.

"It's great to see new kids that haven't played or that are coming from Tee-Ball and can play with the coach pitching to them," Yeadon said.

After the kids experience coaches pitching in the 7-to-9 age group, they have the chance to pitch to each other in the 10-to-13 age group.

"It's a little bit different because more times than not, a dad is not going to hit you with his pitches but another kid might because his control is not the same," Yeadon said.

Though he is more than thankful for how this season went, Yeadon hopes for bigger things in the future.

"Hopefully we can keep progressing and get this to a more sustainable league," Yeadon said. "More kids, more teams, and we want to try to make things more official."

Casey Cote was a coach for the 7-to-9 Red Team this season. He shared his thoughts on how things went.

"What I would say for myself, and the rest of the coaches from this year, is that this year is probably the best coaching staff that I have ever seen in baseball, in Malta," Coach Cote said. "The two coaches for the 10-to13-year-olds were decent but the coaches from the 7-to-9 year-olds..."

Coach Cote stopped and regathered his thoughts.

"It was great," Cote said on a more serious note. "The kids were awesome. Hopefully, everybody had fun."

Cote expressed gratitude to Yeadon for putting the event together and for the coaches who worked with the young athletes.