LAFAYETTE, INDIANA—A smile creeps across Makaio Duyao’s face when he recalls playing in the Colt World Series and it gets a little bigger when the game’s final inning is mentioned.
Duyao was in scoring position in the bottom of the eighth inning, ignoring the fact his team trailed Puerto Rico by two runs. Instead, he was fixed on task at hand: scoring. When teammate Ramona Nogales connected for a single, Duyao and teammate Riki DeSa took off to score the winning and tying runs, lifting the Legends to a 9-8 extra innings win over Puerto Rico for their fourth straight World Series title on Aug. 6 at Loeb Stadium in Lafayette, Ind. All four championships have come against Puerto Rico.
“It was a good experience,” Duyao said. “It was pretty intense.”
Though he plays for Los Gatos, Duyao lives in Gilroy and attends Christopher High School. He plays in the outfield on the Legends with good friend Dallas Wilson, who attends Gilroy High. Wilson was the catcher for this year’s World Series champions.
Having won the three titles in a row heading into the tournament, the stakes were high for the Legends team. The reigning champs had a target on their backs, despite being a dramatically different team than the previous years; Los Gatos returned only one player from 2013. The Legends defeated Grand Ledge, Mich. and Greensboro, N.C. teams to open the tournament, but lost to Grand Ledge in their second meeting on Aug. 5. Los Gatos rebounded with a 7-3 win to punch its ticket to the championship game.
“There was a lot of pressure,” Wilson said. “We didn’t want to be the team that ended the streak.”
While they didn’t face them on the diamond, Duyao and Wilson watched and interacted with local teams such as host town Lafayette and others from as far away as the Czech Republic. The duo said they are using the experience as a measuring stick for success.
“It shows us how hard we’ve got to work and all the other talent around,” Duyao said. “You want to work harder after seeing that kind of good pitching and stuff.”
“It’s a lot different from California, so it was a pretty neat experience,” Wilson added. “You get to see what else is out there besides what’s in our little area which is cool.”
Duyao and Wilson have been teammates in the PONY Baseball League for the past three years, but are rivals once prep season comes around. The Christopher outfielder joked that his Mustang pal takes the crosstown showdowns more seriously than he does, but once the dust settles they are back to being like brothers.
“The smack talk is pretty fun,” Wilson said with a laugh.
With no boundaries set up for the Colt league, Legends manager Frank Payton said the key to success is simple: find the right bunch of kids.
“We’re able to pick kids from all over. I try and get kids from that way (Gilroy) as well and it’s kind of nice,” Payton said. “It’s a mixture of like 14 high schools in our league this year. These kids came and played on my team because we knew them from travel ball. They’re just good kids and I’m just glad they got to represent.”
