The 10U Methow Valley Cubs took second place at the season-ending Deer Park Wooden Bat tournament.
After a slow start to their 2026 summer season, the 10U Methow Valley Cubs gained some steam with experience and closed out the summer with a second-place finish at the Deer Park Wooden Bat tournament in late July.
While not quite matching their older counterparts, the 10U boys did have a winning record of six wins and five losses, and worked hard learning the game at their entry-level age group.
Even with the blended ages, it was a small, yet determined group this year, taking between 10 and 12 players to each of the competitions. It was barely enough to field a nine-player team, but they played on, demonstrating passion for the game and a winner’s culture of steady improvement.
Kicking off the summer at Chelan’s Battle of the Butte, the boys placed fourth in the tourney with a record of 1-3, losing their first two games, winning game three in pool play, and dropping their trophy round game.
At Okanogan, the boys had a tough pool-play round, coming out winless, but broke through for a final round victory to place fifth out of the six teams.
Deer Park’s Wood Bat Tournament was the high point for the season. The boys played their way into the championship game, where they fell to a dominant Canadian team from Trail, British Columbia, 10-0 in five innings.
They defeated Chelan youth baseball with a hitting and running barrage for a 19-0 rout. They followed that win with a nail-biting 7-6 win over Chewelah, earning the right to play Trail in the title game.
Assistant coach Sheri Peterson, who helped provide information for this report, noted that Trail had the best pitching the boys had seen.
“The Trail team’s pitching was at a level our team had never faced before,” wrote Peterson. “They did get a few good swings in, and even broke one of the wood bats.”
The boys fared a little better in their non-tournament games, splitting a pair of double-headers with an Ephrata team, each team sweeping their home series. They also beat local rival Chelan in a non-tournament game early in the season.
The team was coached by Eric Lentz, assisted by Jared Slater and Sheri Peterson, and consisted of Blake Richmond, Brooks Pitvin, Calvin Peterson, Cooper Meyer, Finn Slater, Rawly Port, Gamble Plowman, Heath Query, Ryker Jateff, Trygve Lentz, William Kulsrud and Zach Knox.
