Mariners finish season with heartbreak
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LEWISTOWN – With every game on the line, the Mariners were in true battle mode fighting through the best teams in the state for a chance to continue on to the next level of postseason play.
Though the Mariners put up a fight, they ultimately came home 2-2 for the tournament, falling in their final game against their own western conference mates, the Glacier Twins who, in the end, advanced to the Regional tournament in Anchorage, AK.
Head Coach Jami Hanson believes the M’s had to fight every game with nothing coming easy to the team.
“The ball just didn’t bounce our way,” Hanson said. “We didn’t get many breaks and the kids had to battle.”
Though the M’s came home without the trophy, Hanson said his pitching staff was a big part of what has propelled the Mariners through the season.
The “big three” — Bradley Pichler, Derek Peel, and Zeke Webster-Yaqui — took charge logging the most innings on the bump for the season with strong performances also coming from the younger crew in Bransen Krebs, Jacob Harrod, and Trevor Paro.
“Our pitching staff was outstanding,” Hanson said. “The starters really stepped up.”
In the opener on Tuesday, the M’s took on the Belgrade Bandits, picking up the game-one 6-4 victory behind Pichler’s 10 strikeouts.
The Mariners scored first in the third inning but were answered back with a lone homerun off of a Bandit bat in the fourth to tie it up. A rally followed in the fifth inning with the M’s putting up five runs to grab the lead and kept it through nine for the win.
Pichler picked up the win from the hill allowing two earned runs and walking three. Pichler also grabbed the game MVP award, bracelets that were given to a player from each game to honor spectacular game play.
Zeke Webster-Yaqui had a game high three RBIs on two doubles while Ryan Pablo would finish up going 3-5 with a double and a run batted in.
On Wednesday the Mariners faced an old nemesis, the Laurel Dodgers, who have won the State title four out of the last five years with the exception of 2012 when the M’s won the crown. While the Dodgers stayed on top through the nine innings, the Mariners kept their opponents close and almost turned the contest into a new game by scoring two in the ninth, ending the game with just a single point gap with a score of 3-4.
Derek Peel helmed the mound and despite the loss, pitched a great eight, striking out two and allowing only a single walk.
Nyqolas Gillingham and Pablo each went 2-5 with Gillingham adding an RBI and picking up the game MVP.
Game three, on Friday, Webster-Yaqui took charge on the bump with a 6-3 win against the Gallatin Valley Outlaws. In a pitching-dual through the first four scoreless innings, it was GVO that scored first in the fifth. The Mariners answered back late in the game tying it up in the seventh and exploding in the eighth, scoring five to lead.
Three runs can be credited to a very big triple off the bat of Trevor Paro. Paro cleared loaded bases, knocking in a comfortable cushion for the M’s.
Paro shared the game MVP spotlight with Webster-Yaqui who struck out eight for the win, with both taking home the MVP bracelet.
On Friday, the Mariners played their final game of the tournament, also marking the last game for the season against the Glacier Twins resulting in a tough 9-11 loser-out loss.
Pablo started on the hill for the M’s but struggled to keep the Twins’ bats at bay as Glacier knocked seven hits off the starting pitcher, scoring in each of the first three innings. The Mariners would bring in Paro in the fifth and Harrod in the seventh, giving some pitching relief for the M’s to put up a few runs of their own while bringing the score closer to their favor until the eighth inning when Glacier scored another three. Pichler was brought to mound to close it up, retiring four of the five batters faced, with one Twin reaching on error. The M’s answered back punching three runs across home plate, but it wasn’t enough to close the gap, ending the Mariners battle.
Alex Killian went 4-5 with an RBI in the contest earning him the game MVP award.
All in all Hanson is proud of his Mariners after seeing a season of great improvement.
“It was slow getting going,” he said. “At the end things changed. The kids started playing very well. It’s kind of bittersweet if you don’t win the whole thing.”
One thing is for sure for the Skipper: the nine seniors who will not be returning next season will be greatly missed.
“I’m really proud of them,” Hanson said. “I wish them all the best of luck.”
Results
Mariners 0 0 1 0 5 0 0 0 0 – 6 11 5
Belgrade Bandits 0 0 0 1 0 0 3 0 0 – 4 6 4
Ryan Pablo 3-5, Zeke Webster-Yaqui 2-5, Alex Killian 2-4, TJ Olson 1-4, Nyqolas Gillingham 0-4, Derek Peel 1-4, Jacob Harrod 1-4, Jared Young 0-3, Trevor Paro 1-3.
2B – Webster-Yaqui (2), Pablo, Killian. RBIs – Webster-Yaqui (3), Pablo, Killian, Paro.
Mariners 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 – 3 9 2
Laurel Dodgers 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 2 – 4 13 3
Ryan Pablo 2-5, Zeke Webster-Yaqui 1-5, Alex Killian 1-5, TJ Olson 1-3, Bradley Pichler 1-3, Nyqolas Gillingham 2-5, Jacob Harrod 1-3, Jared Young 0-2, Trevor Paro 0-3, Brenen Abromeit 0-2.
2B – Olson. RBIs – Webster-Yaqui, Pichler, Gillingham.
Mariners 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 5 0 – 6 7 4
Gallatin Valley Outlaws 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 – 3 11 1
Ryan Pablo 0-5, Zeke Webster-Yaqui 0-4, Alex Killian 2-5, TJ Olson 2-4, Bradley Pichler 1-3, Derek Peel 1-3, Jacob Harrod 0-3, Brenen Abromeit 0-3, Trevor Paro 1-2.
2B – Olson, Peel. 3B – Paro. RBIs – Paro (3), Peel (2), Abromeit.
Mariners 0 0 0 1 0 5 0 0 3 0 – 9 13 3
Glacier Twins 1 2 2 0 0 3 0 3 0 – 11 9 3
Bradley Pichler 1-5, Zeke Webster-Yaqui 1-3, Alex Killian 4-5, TJ Olson 1-3, Jared Young 0-2, Ryan Pablo 2-3, Derek Peel 2-5, Jacob Harrod 1-3, Brenen Abromeit 1-4, Trevor Paro 1-5, Nyqolas Gillingham 0-2.
2B – Paro, Pablo. RBIs – Pablo (2), Abromeit (2), Webster-Yaqui, Killian, Peel, Harrod.
