The Eastern Kentucky Naturals, a traveling 10 and 11-year-old baseball team made up of area players, will be showing its support for breast cancer research this weekend.
During the AABC State Tournament at Fannin Park, the Naturals will be putting away their regular jerseys and wear pink t-shirts with numbers on it as uniforms.
"They liked the idea," said Mark O'Bryan, one of the Naturals' coaches. "We wanted to do something special."
Some of the proceeds from the two-day tournament, which starts Saturday morning at 9, will be donated to breast cancer research.
The Naturals, which have five players who attend Boyd County schools, five who attend Ashland schools and one who attends Rose Hill, have had a busy summer with a 37-7 record.
They've already qualified for the USSSA World Series that will be played in Columbus, Ind., later this summer.
This weekend's tournament includes the Boyd County Astros and the Naturals, both of whom are AABC sanctioned, and teams from Russell and Morehead.
But only the Astros or Naturals could advance to the AABC regionals. O'Bryan said his team would be going to the USSA World Series.
The Astros, a 12-year-old team, handed the Naturals two of their seven losses, O'Bryan said.
"They've got a real good team," he said.
O'Bryan said he's tried to allow the Naturals to do other things this summer besides baseball. He's also incorporated baseball into other events.
"I've been reading the (Independent's) articles about the sandlot and how kids are too organized," he said. "We know there's more to life than what we preach to them."
O'Bryan said the Naturals have had some two-day practices where they pitched tents in the outfield and then practiced the next morning.
"We practice once a week generally because we've played a lot of games even with all the rainouts," he said. "We shut it down for a week so people could take vacations."
O'Bryan said his center fielder and leadoff hitter called him this week and told him a friend had asked him to go to the lake this weekend.
"I told him I want to pick the day you're going to the lake and then tell me," O'Bryan said. "He said 'I'm going to the lake on Saturday and will play Sunday since it's the elimination round.' I told him that was fine with me."
The our teams will have pool play on Saturday to set seeding for Sunday's elimination games.
Other coaches on the Naturals are Kevin Damron, Jim Johnson and Bob Davis.
Those attending the game will be charged for parking. Some of that money, after tournament expenses, will be donated to breast cancer research, O'Bryan said.
MARK MAYNARD can be reached at mmaynard@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2648. To see more of The Daily Independent or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.dailyindependent.com. Copyright (c) 2009, The Daily Independent, Ashland, Ky. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
Copyright (C) 2009, The Daily Independent, Ashland, Ky.