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Pony Baseball 6U All-Stars play in FanFest

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The festivities associated with Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game at Petco Park in Downtown San Diego included a fan festival in the San Diego Convention Center southwest of the park. Convention center activity included youth games on an indoor diamond, and on July 8 Ramona Pony Baseball’s Shetland All Star team played in one of those games.

“They were beside themselves. In their heads they were playing Major League Baseball,” said their manager, Mike Morgan. “It was just a great experience.”

The Shetland level of Pony Baseball is 6 years old and younger, and uses a T-ball format where batters hit the ball off a tee rather than from a pitch. The Ramona team consisted of 10 boys and two girls, and all 12 players batted each inning and were in the field at the same time.

“We played three big innings,” Morgan said.

Three assistant coaches are the standard for Shetland teams, and joining Morgan were Nick Conklin, Johnny Gaines and Kyle Patterson.

Ramona faced a team from Mission Bay. No score was kept, since at the Shetland level the focus is on development rather than winning.

“They played sharp and it was a positive experience overall,” Morgan said. “We only had three weeks of practice and they looked really, really fantastic. We had a couple of weeks to work with the kids and they really came together as a team.”

The youth game was shown on the large scoreboard and also had announcers.

“It was really cool,” said Morgan. “They really did it up nice for them.”

Pony Baseball’s Western Region selected the teams to play at the San Diego Convention Center, and organizations that host Pony League tournaments were preferred.

“They try to go to those leagues first,” said Morgan. “When Major League Baseball reached out to them, then they reached out to us.”

Ramona had hosted a sectional tournament in June. Morgan noted that the support of the league as well as the players’ families were essential to the opportunity the team had.

The game organizer commended Morgan for his team’s attitude.

“As a coach that felt really nice,” Morgan said. “They represented themselves well.”

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