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MUSCATINE, Iowa – Young, outstanding talent has landed the Muscatine Red Sox in the final weekend of the 2009 Iowa Amateur Baseball Association state tournament.

The Muscatine Red Sox (13-8) have several players who have played at several different levels of baseball, including the minor leagues, independent leagues and college ball.

“It’s been 10 years since Muscatine has won its first two games in the tournament,” Red Sox general manager John Robinson said. “That is hard to do. You have to be good, and they are. Most of them have played college or pro ball.”

The Red Sox will play the Des Moines Titans at Augustana College on Saturday at noon.

A member of the team is Nathan Panther, who spent several seasons with the Cleveland Indians minor league affiliates.

“We have good, young players,” said Panther, a Muscatine High School graduate. “When we have everyone show up, we play good baseball. We had to forfeit a few games this season, but we now have 10-13 guys who can really play.”

The Red Sox, in fact, had to forfeit a pair of doubleheaders when they only had seven players during the regular season. Robinson attributed the lack of players to different obligations.

“That’s a bummer,” Robinson said. “It was very difficult to get 12 players to one game because of weddings, anniversaries, vacations, personal lives and work. But the players have come back.”

Also on the Red Sox is former Muscatine Community College standout Shawn Ravenscraft, who tried his hand at the Golden Baseball League in 2008 before being released in late June. He says facing that kind of competition has helped him.

“I think it does a little, facing some of the best guys in the world,” Ravenscraft said. “You have to face ex-big leaguers and those going into Triple-A. You get pretty confident in what you are going to do. There, it literally is your life and you know you could be released at any moment. It puts things in perspective.”

Panther, however, said playing in the minors doesn’t give him any kind of edge.

“Not really,” he said. “I was used to the reps every day.

“Now, I’m only doing it once or twice a week and it’s hard on me. These young, college guys have it down and it’s a totally different scenario. It’s hard to get in and mix it up with those guys.”

Good defense and timely offense were key in the Red Sox advancing to the second weekend.

Ravenscraft had a walk-off home run in a 3-2 win over Walford; Kevin Stinson, Angel Rosa and A.J. Fields had three straight home runs in the fifth inning during a 6-2 victory against the Des Moines Aces and in that game, Stinson had 18 strikeouts out of 21 outs.

“At any point, when you have back-to-back-to-back home runs – that’s a huge killer,” Ravenscraft said. “It was close at that point and that deflates the other team.”

“I’ve never seen that since I started playing in 1952 for the Red Sox,” Robinson added of the three consecutive homers. “I don’t think that’s ever happened.”

The only loss the Red Sox suffered last weekend was to the defending champions, Watkins, 13-4. Panther said that it will take perfect play to come back and win it all against Watkins.

“They’re a really good team at 24-2,” Panthers said. “We’re going to have to go out and pitch well, play good defense and we’ll have to hit well … a little small ball, and see what we can do.”

Robinson said he can’t help but think that it would be extraordinary for the Red Sox to win their first state title in 50 years.

“I think of that every day,” Robinson said. “I was on that team. It would be neat to possibly win state on the 50-year anniversary.

“We couldn’t do this without the little, middle and large sponsorship. Anywhere from 25-30 years there have been loyal sponsors of the Red Sox and that speaks a lot for the city of Muscatine.”