Mission Valley All-Stars come up short at state
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WHITEFISH — One bad inning in each of their games at the Montana Babe Ruth Tournament cost the Mission Valley All-Stars a chance at victory
The shorthanded 15-year-old Babe Ruth team went 0-4 and failed to make it out of pool play at the 10-team tournament in Whitefish and Columbia Falls last weekend.
The All-Stars gave up six runs in the fifth inning in an 8-6 loss to Glendive to open the tournament. They had two errors and gave up five walks in the six-run inning. In a 7-2 loss to Missoula, they hit three Missoula batters and allowed three runs in the fourth inning.
They were trailing Glacier only by a run until giving up three runs in the sixth in a 9-4 loss. In their final game of the tournament, they allowed six runs on three walks and two errors in one inning to exit the tournament with a 13-6 loss to Golden Triangle.
“We had our chances in every single game,” Mission Valley manager Arnie Sorrell said. “We just had that one bad inning that cost us. That was just our tournament M.O. We had the one inning that kind of stripped it from us.”
The All-Stars entered the tournament with only 10 players. Their bench at the tournament consisted of 12-year-old Quaid Harlan, who started the season as their batboy.
Though low in numbers, Sorrell said his depleted team banded together and every single one of them contributed.
“We could name off every kid for everything. We had a lot of kids do a lot of outstanding things,” Sorrell said.
In the 8-6 loss to Glendive, Mission Valley catcher Davin Sorrell, who assistant coach Scott Crawford said had less passed balls and threw out more base runners than any other catcher at the tournament, hit a solo home run off the scoreboard about 340 feet from the plate in the seventh.
First baseman Quinn Harlan had an RBI single in the All-Stars’ three-run sixth to give them a short-lived 5-2 lead. Zeke Yaqui, Alex Killian and Nick Crawford all scored in the inning.
Crawford, who pitched in all four games at the tournament, started the game for the All-Stars and went four innings before being relieved. He struck out six.
In the 7-2 loss to Missoula, second baseman Tyler Delaney and
Quinn Harlan scored the All-Stars’ runs. Delaney, the All-Stars’ leadoff hitter, got on three of the four times he came to the plate in the game and reached base 12 times in four games.
Yaqui started the game against Glacier and had a pitch count of 99, which is his uniform number, when he was relieved in the fifth by Crawford.
Killian went 2-for-3 with a RBI single. Center fielder Barrett Sargeant had a RBI double in the third.
Having only 10 players, playing through injuries and playing in nearly 100-degree heat caught up with the All-Stars against Golden Triangle in the final game of the tournament.
“We kind of gassed out in the last game,” Sorrell said. "Our pitchers this last game, well, they were just tired. We just got wore out.”
Dylan Evans, who had an RBI in the third, started the game and only gave up a run in two innings.
Delaney had an RBI double in the third, scoring Quinn Harlan. Harlan led off the inning with a single, which was the All-Stars’ first hit in the game. Ryan Pablo had a double and scored a run on a Quinn Harlan single in the fourth.
