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Simply super: Baseball team competes in national tournament
BY ANDREW MAY, Staff Writer
The Texas Senators 12U baseball team was so dominant during the regular season that it qualified for the 2008 Super Series National Championships. Twice.
The Senators, comprising 10 players from Little Elm, Frisco, McKinney, Leonard, Greenville and Trenton, won the United States Specialty Sports Association (USSSA) AAA state tournament in Plano the last weekend in June to qualify, and also secured another berth that ultimately was of no use via a national qualifying tournament title.
The select team is currently in Collierville, Tenn. competing in the Super Series, which wraps up Saturday. Despite not playing in a single league this spring for the first time since the team was founded in 2005, the Senators were good enough to get the job done in the clutch. They played in 11 tournaments this year, placing in seven of them.
“Our goal and focus is preparing dedicated players to become starters on their high school team,” he said. “Right now I feel like we’ve got 6-7 boys that will be able to walk on to their team as freshmen and be starters.”
The Senators play most of their games at the Ballfieds at Craig Ranch in McKinney, and practice once a week at My Batters Box in Prosper.
Murphy said many of the Senators are skilled pitchers that can throw straight heat that would make older players a bit jealous.
“Most of the boys are capable of pitching beyond 55 [mph],” he said. “Some are breaking the 70 mark.”
The continued improvement and willingness to learn and develop has been one of the many highlights this spring. During the AAA state championship game June 29, Murphy’s work was done for him by the players.
“I felt like I was in the stands,” he said. “There was very little that had to be said. There were some plays that set me in awe. The program we have is obviously working.”
Murphy and his staff take pride in encouraging fun, good sportsmanship, participation, learning and an enduring appreciation for the game of baseball. Of course, all of those things are much easier accomplished when the team is winning. Murphy expects that to continue as the boys make a strong push at a Super Series championship.
“Given how we played at state, we give ourselves a pretty good chance,” he said.
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