There is a baseball star in Twain

This guy is a starter at center field, has a .450 batting average and fills in at pitcher when needed. He travels to Reno for practice twice a week and his team plays in two-day tournaments once a month in Nevada and California.

The Scorpions play year-round ball and are part of a group called the Competitive Travel Ball Team. From July 23 to 29 his team will travel to Long Island, New York, to play in a national tournament. It has been chosen as one of the top 15 teams in the United States.

Ethan Crespo is 11.

To help defray the travel costs to New York, Ethan will be working with a local woodcutter to amass firewood in cord lots to be given away in a prize drawing. Tickets will be available at the Twain store where mom, Christy, works.

Ethan’s baseball journey to Reno began in Quincy Little League. As he began to play, coaches recognized the lad’s extreme talent. They kept moving him up to higher and higher levels of play. Finally, he began playing with a travel ball team out of Quincy, but mom Christy wasn’t happy that the team consisted of players who were much older. Finally they settled on the Reno ball club where Ethan was able to play with team members in his own age group.

Crespo’s favorite team is the World Champion Houston Astros and his favorite player is Jose Altuve, the all world second baseman of that team. Altuve is a well-rounded player, one of those like the great Willie Mays. He excels in the field and at the plate, a great example for a serious young ball player to follow. And Ethan is serious, as is his family.

There are four children in the Crespo family. Ethan has three sisters, one of whom was born with a serious heart defect; she has had many surgeries with more to come. Yet they manage to support their extremely talented son: Not only making the twice weekly trip to Reno for practice, but getting him to Quincy Elementary daily. There are no longer school buses that run down the Canyon as far as Twain.

Ethan enjoys his spare time like most kids his age. Mostly he likes to hang with his buds, and enjoys the brotherhood shared with his teammates. In July, the team will play in a tournament at a facility in New York called Baseball Heaven. The games are reportedly to be broadcast on CBS.

The place is partially owned by Steel Sports with some interest by the Chicago White Sox. It is a 30-acre facility with a number of youth and adult ballparks, electronic scoreboards, connecting bullpens, etc; everything that is found in a major league park to provide the most ideal playing environment.

Ethan has nothing but praise for his teammates and coaches, especially head coach Pat Flury and pitching coach Jake Bray, who is also a member of the Oakland A’s minor league system. Like most boys his age he enjoys playing video games and gold mining with one of Twain’s local miners. But mainly with this lad, it’s all about baseball fulfilling his dreams of some day playing in the Bigs.