Marlene Karas/VIEWAndrew Garcia, left, of the Lions, the Sierra Vista High School American Legion baseball team, scores against Centennial High School in the fourth inning on July 6. The team recently returned from a 10-day trip to the Pacific Northwest, a trip they have been making for the last few years.
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When the Vegas heat becomes too much to bear, most locals head for the hills, seeking cooler temperatures as part of their summer vacations. Why should baseball teams be any different?
Sierra Vista High School's American Legion Gold League team -- which just happens to be leading that league with a 15-1 record as of mid-July -- recently returned from a 10-day trip to the Pacific Northwest, stopping to play games in Seattle and a couple different locations in Oregon. It's a trip the squad has been making for the last few years.
"We like to go up there every year to get out of the heat," said the team's coach, Levi Gill, who works as an assistant for the high school's varsity baseball team. "The legion season is different because the kids are not in school, so there's a little less structure, so we can practice just about every day that we're off. And, of course, it gives us the chance to do more traveling.
"It's nice to take long road trips like this because when you get them all together in a van for that long, they're kind of forced to talk to each other. It lets the kids bond, and that makes it a little easier to build team chemistry."
It doesn't seem to matter where the Lions play, the result is the same: victory.
The team made it all the way to the American Legion World Series two years ago, and with about five players from that team on this year's squad, the goal is to return to the national spotlight.
"The expectation is always to win," Gill said. "For our gold team, the goal is always to win league and then state, and then hopefully move on to regionals and go from there.
"It's really good to have a solid legion program, and with ours, it has allowed us to have three teams during the summer and get some younger guys some opportunities to get at-bats, and it gives other players the chance to come back more mature and play well. But as much as we're preparing for the future, the team always wants to win."
With the Lions swinging particularly well, the top-of-the-order batters getting on base and the pitching staff cutting down on the number of walks, there's no reason not to believe the team has a chance of playing deep into the summer.
"We've also been playing pretty solid defense recently. I think we know if we all do our jobs, then we're going to be successful," Gill said.
The team will finish up the American Legion regular season with games at home against Green Valley today, at Bonanza on Wednesday, against Las Vegas at Durango High School on Saturday, and at Durango on Sunday.
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