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Triple Crown, tubing season to descend on Steamboat this week

Tom Ross





Steamboat’s Davis Petersen unleashes a pitch during a 2011 Triple Crown tournament game in Steamboat Springs. Triple Crown World Series Director Jason McCoy confirmed Tuesday that the Steamboat Mountain Magic 1 boys baseball tournament here June 21 to 23 is sold out with 86 teams expected. And there are two teams from Craig in the field.

Joel Reichenberger

— Triple Crown baseball and river tubing appear to be headed for a harmonious convergence in Steamboat Springs this weekend.

Triple Crown World Series Director Jason McCoy confirmed Tuesday that the Steamboat Mountain Magic 1 boys baseball tournament here June 21 to 23 is sold out with 86 teams expected. And there are two teams from Craig in the field.

“We’ve been sold out since March and have a waiting list,” McCoy said. “Steamboat is a very cool place to hang out for a long weekend.”



Floating the town section of the river is typically one of the favored ways for Triple Crown families to cool off after a couple of hours in the sun at the baseball diamond.

And at the same time Triple Crown brings its first tournament of the summer to town, the Yampa River is dialing up the best early season tubing conditions in at least three years.



The Yampa was flowing at 771 cubic feet per second Tuesday morning — half its median flow for the date. The river was expected to dip to 500 cfs Friday as the youth baseball players and their families settle in.

In 2012, the Yampa already had peaked by this time and tubing had been suspended by the city as of June 21, 2012, (tubing resumed in mid-July). And in 2011, the river was too high for safe tubing in June.

The teams participating in this weekend’s Triple Crown event will come from Colorado, McCoy said, including representatives from Grand Junction to Pueblo and communities up the Front Range. But there also will be two teams from Craig, both called the Colorado Cutthroats, one comprising 8-year-olds and a second made up of 13-year-olds.

The 8-year-olds from Craig are scheduled to play in Steamboat Springs at 8 a.m. Friday versus the Summit Extreme 8 on the north field at Ski Town Fields. The Cutthroats will come right back at 10 a.m. Friday to play the West Jeff Lumberdogs at 10 a.m. on the same field. Then at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, they will play a team called TC at the lower field in Oak Creek.

The 13-year-olds from Craig will compete in one of four divisions against teams from Windsor, Bear Creek, Longmont and Loveland. They open the tournament at 1:30 p.m. Friday versus the Bear Creek Beast on Field 4 at Loudy-Simpson Park in Craig. At 6:15 p.m. Friday, they take on the Longmont Storm, also on Field 4 at Loudy-Simpson.

Before the tournament is over, teams will have played in Hayden and Oak Creek as well as in Steamboat and Craig.

McCoy said the next Triple Crown tournament on Steamboat’s calendar, Mountain Magic 2, will bring 87 teams to town June 28 to 30. It is a regional tournament that typically draws teams from Utah and Wyoming as well as Colorado, he said. However, this year’s bracket also will include a team from Alpharetta, Ga.

Triple Crown fans can keep track of their team in Mountain Magic 1 here.

Triple Crown returns to Steamboat from July 23 to 28 with the first of three consecutive World Series tournaments.

To reach Tom Ross, call 970-871-4205 or email tross@SteamboatToday.com


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