Carson City's 13 year old Babe Ruth all-star team has been idle for nearly two weeks, but manager Todd Thomsen isn't worried.
"I'm not worried at all," he said Wednesday night on the eve of Carson's first game in the double-elimination Pacific Southwest Regional tournament today in Arcata, Calif. "With all the live pitching we've seen in the last 10 days, we're fine. This is the best group of kids I've coached in a long time.
"The kids are excited to be here and ready to go. Practice has gone really well the last few days. All our pitches have looked good. We've been doing a good job on pick-offs."
Carson City drew Tri-Valley from Northern California in its 4 p.m. opener. Alameda meets Tooele (Utah) at 9 a.m., Madera (Calif.) faces Somerton-Yaqui (Arizona) at 12:30 p.m. and Eureka meets La Crescenta (Southern California) at 7:30.
Thomsen has elected Zac Harjes to start the opener, where Carson will be home team. The Carson City manager said he won the coin flip.
"I think he'll do a good job against them," Thomsen said. "He has good and works well inside. He has a good slider."
Harjes is just one of eight pitchers on the roster. Thomsen also can turn to his son, T.J. Thomsen, Luke Maher, Jace Zampirro, Chase Blueberg, Nevin Elliott, Cody Schmidlin and Gehrig Tucker.
"We have eight strong pitchers," the elder Thomsen said.
The offense can be explosive yet can play small ball. The leader is speedy shortstop Thomsen, who is a threat to steal anytime he gets on, and Tucker. They hit 1-2 in the line-up.
"They've hit 1-2 for years," the elder Thomsen said. "They hit 1-2 on our traveling team."
Zampirro, Maher and Elliott give the locals some punch in the middle of the lineup. Zach Andrews, Harjes, Schmidlin and Blueberg also are being counted on to contribute.
If Carson wins, it will play the Eureka-La Crescenta winner at 7:30 Friday. If Carson loses its opener, it will play at 12:30 p.m. Friday against the Eureka-La Crescenta loser.