Three Rivers Little League teams win District 1 championships

A pair of Three Rivers Little League teams earned the title of best squad west of the Continental Divide last weekend.

The 11U and Juniors (ages 12-15) won their respective District 1 titles in Grand Junction and Monument. The Juniors beat Monument 15-5 on June 25 and took down Grand Mesa 12-1 the following day to advance to the finals, where they defeated Monument a second time. Meanwhile, the 11U squad took down Orchard Mesa 9-7 in the final of their five-team tournament to advance to the state round, set to begin later this month.

After the Three Rivers Little League regular season ends in May, coaches from Aspen to Vail and everywhere in between nominate players for the all-star team tryouts. The best 12 are selected for postseason play, which begins at the district level. While the 11U age group only goes as far as the state tournament, older age divisions can advance to regionals and the Little League World Series in August. In 2022, the Three Rivers Little League’s softball, 12U and 14U teams all won state titles and earned regional berths. The following year, Three Rivers sent the 12U and 13U teams to regionals.

This year’s junior team is coached by Dustin Ehlert, Mike Murray and Andrew Mile. The 11U squad is led by Travis Hjorth, Steve Boderck and George Dow.

Boderck said the 11U group — which has three athletes from Carbondale, one from Glenwood Springs and eight from Eagle County — contains the core of last year’s 10U team, which went 1-2 at districts.

Support Local Journalism

Donate

“They’ve started to have a chemistry amongst themselves, so we felt good,” Boderck said of the confidence level going in.  

Three Rivers shut out Monument 4-0 in the first round and demolished Delta 12-1 two days later.

“Our defense was on point and our pitching was lights out,” said Boderck, whose team allowed just one unearned run across both contests. “Every time the other team started getting momentum, we just shut them down.”

In the final on Tuesday, Three Rivers stormed to an 8-0 third-inning advantage. Judson Morton, Haaken Hjorth and Turner Dow each went 3-for-3 from the plate and Tyler Thomas struck out six in four innings of work. But the Orchard Mesa bats heated up late as pitch count rules forced Three Rivers to rotate in new players. Orchard Mesa poured in four runs in the top of the final inning to bring the deficit down to two. But Tyson Boderck — who’d struck out seven in the first-round shutout — came through with a championship-clinching strikeout.

 “They were making a rally and the boys stepped up,” Steve Boderck said. “It was a team effort out there.”

While the 12U age group is able to advance to regionals and the ‘Majors’ World Series, which is televised on ESPN, the 11U season culminates at the state level. Three Rivers has earned the right to host the state tournament beginning on July 17, but potential lack of field availability means they might be traveling again. Either way, the coach said the focus for the next two weeks is to continue working on the fundamentals that got the team to this point.

“We expect the next level of competition just to be a tier above everything we’ve seen to date,” Boderck said. “We feel like we’re going to be competitive and play at their level and we’re hopeful we can make a run.”