The Boerne Little League team will begin play at the Southwest Region Tournament this coming week in Waco. This year’s tourney is scheduled to begin Thursday, Aug. 6 and will continue until Tuesday, Aug. 11.
Seven teams are entered at the six-day event, but only one will advance to the Little League World Series scheduled for Aug. 19-30, in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
Since the state of Texas is so large, it has two state champs, Texas West and Texas East. Boerne is the Texas West champion. Also at the tourney are state champions from Louisiana, Arkansas, New Mexico, Mississippi and Oklahoma.
The two Texas teams play on Thursday Aug. 6, at 10 a.m., while later that day, Louisiana tangles with Arkansas at 1 p.m. and New Mexico plays Mississippi at 4 p.m. Oklahoma has a bye and doesn’t play until the next day against the winner of the Texas game.
There will be a total of 12 games played at the tourney, and Boerne can get to the championship tilt by winning its first three, while Oklahoma only needs two wins since they have a bye. A team can lose early and still make it to the title game, but it would be a longer route to the championship game at the double elimination event.
All the early round games are scheduled to be carried on ESPN+, while games 9 – 12 will be carried on one of the ESPN networks. Game 12 is the championship game scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 11, at 6 p.m., on ESPN 2.
This is the second time in the last three years that Boerne Little League has advanced to the Southwest Region Tournament. In 2024, Boerne won that event and played in the Little League World Series and advanced to the championship game where they eventually finished second nationally and fourth internationally.
That 2024 Boerne team took the city by storm and received a hero’s welcome, which included a water-cannon salute at the airport, a police escort into town and a parade that was well attended despite rainy weather. The players became celebrities and were special guests at several events around town.
A book was even written about that 2024 team by Tim Christ, a father of one of the players on the team. The book is entitled “How Boerne Made History and Played on Their Field of Dreams.”
Boerne Little League All-Stars for 2026 are Anders Paulson, Boone Blalock, Carson Patrick, Case Greco, Chandler Schramek, Lawson Belden, Lyle Fischer, Kase Yarbrough, Kasen Martinez, Merritt Cude, Preston Baird and Walker Yost. Greg Yost is the manager, while Rusty Belden and Josh Cude serve as coaches.
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