Community Corner
Area Baseball Team Plays in Cooperstown
The SoCal Xplozion, a traveling under-12 team made of of Pass area, Hemet, San Jacinto and Riverside youth, is playing in National Cooperstown Tournament of Champions, featuring 26 teams from across the country.
The chances of getting inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame may be slim, but an area baseball is getting a chance to play competitively at the Cooperstown All Star Village.
The SoCal Xplozion, a traveling under-12 team made of of Pass area, Hemet, San Jacinto and Riverside youth, is playing in National Cooperstown Tournament of Champions, featuring 26 teams from across the country.
The team has been fundraising for two years to save up for the cross-country trip, doing everything from car washes to candy sales, said team spokeswoman and parent Denise Ward, of Beaumont.
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"The Cooperstown trip has become their dream and it is a great experience for all the boys," said Ward. "In preparation for Cooperstown, the team has been practicing several days a week, received specialized training & has participated in several tournaments every month."
Coming off of a recent tournament win at the Triple Crown Sports Grand Slam in San Diego, The Xplozion's first game is against the PBI Eagles out of Illinois. They are guaranteed 6 tournament games -- squeezing in two per day -- and then it moves into a single elimination round robin format on Wednesday.
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The team, including Banning's Carson McAfferty, Beaumont's Jason Ward and coach Terry Ward, will still manage to make a visit to the Hall of Fame Museum.
"We hope that the team does well in Cooperstown, but the coaches and parents are proud of them either way," Ward added. "This is an experience that they will remember this for the rest of their lives."
