Under the night sky in Logan, Utah on Aug. 8, the Gate City Grays gathered on the field with tears in their eyes − some of them wearing a Grays uniform for the last time.

Their chance at a championship ended that night with a 3-1 loss to the Logan Royals. Owner Terry Fredrickson gathered the team and asked a question.

“Does anyone know who won the Northern Utah League championship last season?”

No one raised their hand.

“I looked at them and I said, ‘That is because it doesn’t matter,’” Fredrickson said. “What matters is what’s happening in the circle right now. I see tears. I see sadness. I see some of you that may have just played your last game, and the fact that you are here and you’re on this field at this level — that’s what matters. There’s a lot of guys that will never get to where you’re standing right now. That’s just a piece of plastic and a piece of wood. In the end, you being here and being in the arena is 10 times more important.”

The journey to that night began after the 2025 season, with the pride of putting on a Grays uniform and representing Pocatello.

The Grays finished 9-16 in 2025. Two weeks after the final out, Fredrickson, head coach Rhys Pope and assistant coach Payson Hayes met with one motivation: not letting that happen again.

They started by watching baseball. All kinds of baseball.

“We were watching ball,” Fredrickson said. “We were watching fall baseball, spring baseball. We were reaching out to coaches all over the country. Saying, ‘Hey, this is the gap that we have, do you have anybody that could possibly fill that gap.’”

The nucleus was back. Tyler Vance and Brayden Pieper had been mainstays for years, and Chris Louie, Trayson Kostial and Hudson John had come on strong the season before. The foundation was there. They just needed more horses.

They added talent from all over, and the mix of returners and newcomers checked their egos and individualism at the door, walked into Halliwell Park and formed a team that stretched beyond the diamond.

“It’s one of the best group of guys we put together,” Fredrickson said. “They were outstanding individuals in the clubhouse. They were outstanding individuals on the field, and they were just outstanding individuals. Just outstanding guys. This is one of the best classes we’ve recruited to come play and put on a Grays uniform.”

Pope echoed those sentiments.

“By the time we got everybody from our West Coast guys two weeks into the season, you really had a feeling,” Pope said. “It almost felt like they’ve been playing together since they were 8 years old.”

The pillars of the Grays were togetherness, grit and never giving up — three things they executed well all season.

They thrived in almost any context on the way to a 19-10 finish. High scoring, low scoring, comebacks, holding onto leads. Whatever the game asked, they had the confidence that it was never out of reach.

“We were never out of them,” Pope said. “We always put ourselves into positions to win, and we always felt that going into the later innings that we did have a shot to win. When you’ve got a group of guys in the clubhouse that know that they’ve always got a shot to win, it’s easy to coach.”

Where the Grays grew most was pitching depth. Last season, depth was an issue all over the field, but the staff especially was hurting for consistent arms.

This year they had both.

Trem Tolman led the way, the team’s ace when they needed one. Brayden Pieper, Boston Ross and Stetson Higley followed, and success came with them.

That trust and next-man-up mentality mattered late in the season, when the third-seeded Grays reached the playoffs and fate tested their resolve.

With Trayson Kostial and Hudson John injured, and Trem Tolman having pitched only a few days earlier, the Grays went into a must-win game at Halliwell Park leaning on everyone else. Ross pitched a lot of good baseball, and explosive offensive performances from Tyler Vance and catcher Tommy Woodcock led the way in a playoff win that set up a Game 3 with Logan on the road.

They would eventually fall, and their season ended short of the goal. But the team proved who they were.

“It’s always disappointing, right, when you don’t reach your end goal, which is winning the championship,” Pope said. “But I think we did a lot of things to be proud of.”

Now, as the Grays turn the page, they are looking to carry a lot of 2026 into 2027.

“If I could photocopy this team, that’s what I want for next year,” Fredrickson said.

Heart, grit, desire and teamwork aren’t traits a baseball team can teach. They’re instilled. The Grays had them, and they hope to carry them into next season.

“Going into next summer is just kind of building off of that,” Pope said. “We’ve got to do it together, come together and do it as a team. As long as we do that, we’re going to give ourselves a shot at the end of the year to win the NUL championship.”

Pope has laid out goals for 2027: a postseason bye, a top-two seed in the league and an undefeated record at home.

“That might be a tall task,” he said. “When our stadium is the way that it is, our community is the way that it is, our fans that support us the way that they do, I mean, it makes it really tough for people to come play us.”

That night on Aug. 8 didn’t represent the end of the Grays. It’s a new era. Some will never wear the jersey again, but their impact and legacy will last.

This is more than a baseball team. It’s family.

“Winning baseball games is huge and it’s awesome and we love it,” Pope said. “But continuing to help young men on their journey, whether it’s in their baseball careers or their lives or whatever that may be … those are the things that we love just as much, if not more, than baseball games.”