SLC Baseball has been invited into the Five Tools tournament which begins this Thursday. It is considered one of the most prestigious tournaments in high school baseball and has upwards of 30 teams registered to play.
The senior high is one of the many host-sites of these games, meaning the Dragons will be playing on their home turf. With a total of 6 games, Carroll will face players from different states.
“The whole purpose of this tournament is to get Florida, California, and Texas to play the best baseball,” head baseball coach Larry Vucan said. “Most collegiate scholarships come from those states. Even with Team USA, probably seventy percent of the kids we picked to represent the United States are California kids.”
Vucan referred to these states as “the big three of baseball.” He expects the Dragons to face some serious competition that will ultimately prepare the team for district play.
“Everybody has labeled our district as the little SEC,” Vucan said. “Keller is phenomenal, Byron Nelson is good. Then you add Eaton, Bell, and Trinity on top of that. It’s tough.”
The short-term goal is to defeat Byron Nelson in the first round of district play on March 12th. Vucan is confident that this tournament will help to secure better odds at winning district 4-6A this year.
“In this tournament, you’re facing such good competition that anything you see with Keller and Byron, as good as they are, as much as we respect them, we feel like we’ve seen better,” Vucan said. “It’s not gonna intimidate our kids. Plus, half of the kids don’t get intimidated anyway.”
Senior Tanner Carson, third baseman, says the team is working overtime to prepare for this weekend.
“We’re ready to show people what we can do,” Carson said. We practice every day, and most of the guys lift outside of school, too. There’s a lot of great competition we’re going to see, but I’m excited to get out there.”
Junior Owen Satsky, first baseman, is confident in their preparation for district play.
“California teams have a lot of talent,” Satsky said. “They definitely bring a different aspect to it, the players and the style of play. But then we’ll be ready for Byron. Ready to win.”
