PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — Okeeheelee Park has always been the home to some of the best baseball teams in Palm Beach County.
“It’s been a great season. We’ve had ups and downs,” said 10U all-star Jonah Espinosa.
WATCH:
The Okeeheelee Comanches 10U All-Stars are a great team, but you don’t become great overnight. Earlier this summer, the boys lost tournaments they felt they should’ve won.
“There have been games that have been really close games, like championship games and semifinal games, where maybe we felt like we were the better team and should win it, and we don’t,” said head coach Jose Espinosa.
Espinosa admits he would like to win every game, but reminds his team of one thing.
“I don’t really coach baseball; I coach life through baseball. For us, it’s teaching all those things, accountability and how to work together. For us, it’s about making sure that when they do make mistakes, they do know how to respond to that,” said Jose Espinosa.
They responded well, and it started back in May with district play, where the Comanches scored 49 runs while allowing zero runs.
It doesn’t stop there. They took a trip to Auburndale in June, competing against the top 17 teams in the state. The team went undefeated, scoring 39 runs and once again shutting teams out.
“It’s super cool because we’ve let up zero runs this season. It’s like the first time it’s happened in Okeeheelee history,” said 10U all-star, Tate Krass.
He’s not lying. This is the first time in Okeeheelee history that a team has given up zero runs in this span.
This week, the team arrived in North Carolina, representing the state of Florida in the Cal Ripken Southeast Regional Tournament.
“It’s going to be so cool up there; we’re playing on the mountain range. There's nothing better you could ask for,” said Krass.
If they succeed, they’ll be moving onto the Cal Ripken World Series, a once-in-a-lifetime moment for some pretty awesome kids.
“It's exciting, you know, it’s a very hard thing to do. It takes a lot of hard work that nobody sees behind the scenes,” said Jonah Espinosa.
