There wasn’t a real champion at the Randy Keller Memorial Tournament hosted by Amarillo ISD and featuring eight metro high school baseball teams at the end of last week.

While there wasn’t a championship game, though, there were four clear-cut winners, and it was perfect for them, championship game or not.

All three Canyon ISD schools and one AISD school went 4-0 on Thursday and Friday in the tournament which was compacted into two days due to expected snow on Saturday. That was good news for those teams with district play starting next week.

CISD schools Canyon, Randall and West Plains all swept their opponents, as did tournament co-host Tascosa. That serves as a tune-up for next week, when the games all really start counting.

West Plains (10-4-1) might have closed the tournament more emphatically than anybody, as the Wolves scored nine runs in the top of the sixth and eventually invoked the 10-run mercy rule to beat tournament co-host Caprock 11-0.

“One of our goals is to continue to improve all season long and try to be the best baseball program in Amarillo,” coach Colby Chandler said. “To do that you have to play the best baseball programs in Amarillo.”

West Plains started Friday with a game against another AISD school, but it was far more competitive, as the Wolves beat Amarillo High 4-3.

They got all they needed against Caprock by scoring two runs in the top of the first, as a groundout by Kai Carrillo and a single by Elijah Velasquez drove home a pair of runs for a 2-0 lead. That was all the support Noah Vasquez would need on the mound.

Vasquez pitched five shutout innings, striking out eight and allowing a double to Anthony Perez in the fourth inning for Caprock’s only base hit.

“He gets in the mix for us,” said Chandler of Vasquez and his role in the West Plains pitching rotation. “When we get into district he’s very reliable out of the bullpen in tough situations. We gave him the start today and we wanted to see what he could do. He pounded the strike zone and that’s the key to a starter.”

Vasquez had to be sharp, because after the first the Wolves had a hard time getting to Caprock starter Baux Martinez. For the next four innings, West Plains managed only two hits off Martinez and couldn’t get a runner past second.

In the sixth, though, West Plains came alive at the plate, bolstered by some sloppy defense. The Wolves batted around as the first nine batters of the inning all reached base and they eventually knocked out Martinez.

Isaac Herrera relieved Martinez, and Kane White-Tinsley greeted him with a three-run triple to right to make it 7-0. An outfield error and a sacrifice allowed West Plains to achieve the run-rule margin.

West Plains opened the tournament with two wins Thursday, beating El Paso Riverside 6-1 and routing Sweetwater 18-2. Caprock is on the opposite end of the pre-district scale, as the Longhorns are still seeking a win after 12 games. They got the tough end of the draw to close the tournament, losing to Canyon 17-0 after the West Plains game.

For Canyon (12-2), the finish was the opposite from the start of the tournament, as the Eagles opened play by rallying to beat Amarillo High 4-3 on Thursday.

“We tell our kids every day we want to get one percent better, and I thought we did that today,” said first-year Canyon coach Jed Anderson after his team beat Amarillo High. “Our kids competed really well.”

Amarillo High scored one run each in the first two innings off Canyon starter Colt Cruth to take a 2-0 lead. Canyon eventually tied the game 2-2 in the fifth on an infield single by Jacob Burris.

The Eagles scratched out a run each in the sixth and seventh when Bayler Schilling scored on a passed ball and Zabien Urteaga drove in a run on a groundout for a 4-2 lead.

Schilling came on in the bottom of the seventh, and with no outs he gave up an RBI single to Tate Blackwell to cut it to 4-3. But Schilling got Clinton Rodriguez to ground into a double play and struck out Oliver Parsons to preserve the win.

That capped a strong bullpen outing by the Eagles, as Brixton Lindley and Urteaga both pitched scoreless innings of relief.

“We wanted to stretch Colt out a little bit and I thought he did a phenomenal job,” Anderson said. “I thought our pitchers for the most part all year have done a really good job and hats off to them. I thought they competed their tails off. If you’ve got good pitching you’ve always got a chance to be in the game.”

That also was the case in the games between beating Amarillo High and Caprock, as the Eagles beat Palo Duro 6-2 and El Paso Riverside 7-4.

Randall, meanwhile, made its mark at the plate over two days. The Raiders (9-4-1) scored in double digits in three of their four wins, and in the fourth scored nine.

Thursday, Randall opened the tournament by flexing some muscle at the plate, beating Bushland 13-7 and Caprock 11-1.

“I think this last week we really worked in the cages on our hitting approach with the weather being cooped inside with all that wind,” Randall coach Brad Propst said. “We got a lot of hacks in this week so I hope we can continue swinging the bats well.”

The Raiders opened play Friday by beating El Paso Riverside in a slugfest 12-11 then beat El Paso Ysleta 9-5. They built up some momentum toward opening District 4-4A play next week, along with their fellow CISD teams.

“We’ve got to keep getting better,” Propst said. “Everybody early on is still trying to figure out who they are. It’s great just to be able to get on the field because the weather’s been atrocious lately. You want to get out and play somebody other than yourself.”

Along with West Plains, Tascosa might have closed the tournament the strongest. The Rebels fell into an eight-run deficit against Bushland after two innings but dominated the rest of the way, rolling to a 15-8 victory to close the tournament with a 4-0 mark.

For first-year Tascosa coach Yancy Molloy, it was a perfect way to end things before starting District 3-5A play next week.

“The guys did fantastic,” Molloy said. “We got off to a slow start in two of our four games and they battled back. I wouldn’t script it that way but I’ll take it.”

Bushland took an 8-0 lead in the second inning, knocking out Tascosa starting pitcher Jude Cunningham in the process. The Rebels (6-3) got back into the game with four straight hits to start the inning, capped by Reese Cabe’s bases-loaded triple to cut it to 8-3. 

Before the end of the inning, Tascosa had cut the lead to 8-6 and knocked out Bushland starter Max Rodriguez. The Rebels then scored eight in the fourth, helped in no small part by two Bushland errors, three walks and a hit batsman.

It bore a striking resemblance to the previous day’s 8-7 win over Borger, in which Tascosa rallied from a 7-0 deficit.

“I think what we’re trying to instill in Tascosa baseball is to never quit and never give up,” Molloy said. “We’re trying to realize we’re always in the game. We know that’s not always going to happen but we’re going to fight all the way until the end. I think we’ve got nine guys who want to compete.” 

Tascosa routed Dumas 14-2 on Thursday and beat Perryton 10-4 on Friday.

Randall Keller Memorial Tournament scores

Thursday’s games

Canyon 4, Amarillo High 3
Randall 13, Bushland 7
West Plains 6, El Paso Riverside 1
Tascosa 14, Dumas 2
Hereford 4, Palo Duro 1
Borger 8, Caprock 3
West Plains 18, Sweetwater 2
Tascosa 8, Borger 7
Amarillo High 8, El Paso Ysleta 7
Canyon 6, Palo Duro 2
Randall 11, Caprock 1
Dumas 8, Bushland 6
Perryton 11, El Paso Ysleta 10
El Paso Riverside 7, Hereford 5
Sweetwater 9, Perryton 1

Friday’s games

West Plains 4, Amarillo High 3
Palo Duro 9, Borger 4
Randall 12, El Paso Riverside 11
Tascosa 10, Perryton 4
Canyon 7, El Paso Riverside 4
West Plains 11, Caprock 0
Dumas 14, El Paso Ysleta 5
Randall 9, El Paso Ysleta 5
Tascosa 15, Bushland 8
Amarillo High 7, Hereford 1
Palo Duro 10, Perryton 7
Canyon 17, Caprock 0
Hereford 7, Bushland 5
Dumas 6, Sweetwater 5