Vernal Express

AMERICA'S PASTIME HITS VERNAL

During the regular season, Westchester, California, played its baseball games a mile away from one of the busiest airports -- LAX.

The games would be stopped because of massive jets flying in the sky.

Westchester had a break from life in the city while playing in the 13-and-under Pacific Southwest Regional tournament at the Ashley Valley Ballpark.

The tournament started on Monday, July 24, and finished on Saturday with the title game.

“We like this small town,” Westchester parent George Rodriguez said on Thursday before his team faced off against Vernal. “It’s very friendly and very nice. It’s a great view. The people have been good to us. The baseball has been good.”

Westchester ended up knocking Vernal out of the tournament with a 9-4 victory in a must-win game. The tournament featured teams from Utah, Arizona, California, Nevada and Hawaii. The teams were playing for a spot in the World Series tournament slated for Homestead, Arkansas.

After Westchester qualified for the tournament, Rodriguez quickly did some research on where his son was heading to play on the diamond.

“First of all, I didn’t know where Vernal was,” Rodriguez said. “When I looked at the map, it was on the top right corner of Utah.”

Rodriguez brought his entire family to watch the double-elimination tournament.

“The fields are amazing,” Rodriguez said. “The night it was raining it didn’t puddle up or anything.”

The trip for the Rodriguez family took 13 hours one-way. The family drove on Interstate 15 before turning at Spanish Fork.

“It was a nice drive and it was a good experience,” Rodriguez said.

Parent Marco Bronzini from Tri Valley, California, was highly impressed with the baseball diamonds at the Ashley Valley complex.

“The fields are amazing,” Bronzini said. “They are nicer here. The weather in Utah helps a little bit. Our summers get a little hotter. Overall, they are better conditioned. Some of our newer fields at home are equal too. Some of them a little bit older.”

Bronzini said Tri Valley’s league plays a 20-game regular season made up of six different teams. The teams then form three different all-star teams.

“Some communities it’s a bigger sport,” Bronzini said. “Our area, I call it medium size. Some communities it’s really small.”

Bronzini’s son, Nic Bronzini, is a pitcher and plays in the outfield. He threw on Thursday night.

“We have several good arms,” Bronzini said. “There are four or five kids that can go out there and you can’t really tell them apart.”

Melinda Palmer from Vernal helped run the concession stands for the tournament.

“I think that it’s good for our community and it brings people into the hotels, all the restaurants, to be a part of it,” Palmer said. “The people are supportive of our concession stands.”

Palmer works with the concession stand in the spring with Vernal Youth Baseball Association and then helps with the tournament. She will help with fall ball in September.

“We have probably 15 to 16 kids that work here and four adults,” Palmer said. “They like to come work here. They like to have a beginner job.”

Palmer said the specialty is a double cheeseburger and the fries along with the foot-long hot dogs.