A long way from home...
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Mariners have a long trip back home from Billings after only being able to push three runs across home plate in two losses at the state tournament.
It was like somebody flipped a switch on the Mariners’ high-powered offense at the 2010 State A American Legion State Championship.
As soon as the lights went out on the offense, which averaged more than 13 runs and 11 hits a game to win the district title a week before, the party was over for the Mariners. They ended their season waiting for a rally that would never come and a year that started with such promise ended with a whimper instead of a bang. The Mariners could manage only six hits in their final games, capping the season with a 6-2 loss to Great Falls and a 8-1 loss to the Bitterroot Red Sox at Dehler Park in Billings.
“It’s was just frustrating. It was frustrating not being able to score runs your last two ball games,” Mission Valley manager Jami Hanson said. “I mean, what, we score three runs our last two games.”
The Mariners entered the tournament as winners of their last three tournaments and they seemed to carry this momentum in the opener Thursday, where all nine starters had a hit and eight of them had multiple hits in a 18-6 blowout of the Gallatin Valley Outlaws.
Tyler Linse went 3 for 4 with two RBIs and was just a home run short of hitting for the cycle – the third baseman, not noted for his speed, legged out a RBI triple in the Mariners’ four-run fourth.
Kaileb Gillingham, Tim Rausch, Derrick Rathe, Justin Evertz, Matt Detwiler, Kyle Bagnell and Justin Evans all drove in two runs for the Mariners.
Evertz went the distance, striking out 10, walking three and giving up nine hits in seven innings.
Perhaps because of the offensive fireworks against the Outlaws, Hanson and coach Joe Locke deciding to start Derrick Rathe against the Great Falls Electrics Friday night and save their ace Bagnell for Saturday’s game. And maybe it was because of their ability to score runs the last half of the season and come from behind to win games in the late innings that Hanson and the rest of the Mariners weren’t worried when they fell behind 6-1 after one and 2/3 innings and had to bring Bagnell in from right field to relieve Rathe. Two of the Electrics’ runs came after a blown call with one out in the first inning. Second baseman Gillingham clearly dropped the ball on the transfer trying to turn an inning-ending double play. The umpire called Electric shortstop Spencer Hortick safe at second, and Great Falls pushed two more runs across the plate before the Mariners could get their fourth out in the inning.
Even with things seeming to go against them early on, Hanson wasn’t worried. He had Bagnell, who entered the game without giving up a run in his last 45 innings, on the mound; and Hanson thought scoring runs was just a matter of time – the Mariners scored a run and had another two runners on base in the first inning.
Bagnell did his job on the hill, striking out 19 and only giving up an infield single in 7 1/3 innings. He pushed his scoreless inning streak to 52 1/3 innings. But the runs never came for Bagnell, and the frustration in the Mariners’ dugout grew with each passing inning.
“We were just waiting for that one little break, where you get two or three runs in an inning and get things going from there and it never happened,” Hanson said.
The Mariners ran themselves out of scoring chance, with runners on second and third with one out in the fourth and they only scored one run in the seventh after having the bases loaded with one out.
Both Mariner runs were scored on sacrifice flies. Evertz scored Gillingham in the first, and Linse drove in Bagnell in the seventh.
Hanson said that they carried over some of the frustration from the loss into the next game, but with a veteran crew – 10 Mariners were playing their final season – they all knew they could still win the championship.
Most of them were in a similar situation in 2007, when they came back to win the championship after losing to Vauxhall.
“You’re hoping, and everything that you need to win is there. The belief is there, but sometimes it just doesn’t work out,” Hanson said.
Against the Red Sox, who they had just beat 18-3 in the district championship game, the Mariners pulled within a run in the fifth when Linse, who reached with a double, scored on a Rausch sac fly.
The Red Sox added four runs in the seventh and two runs in the eighth for the 8-1 victory.
Rausch gave up six runs, only two of which were earned, in seven innings for the loss. He struck out six and only allowed four hits.
Cory Hardy, Chris Alfiero, Jay Sorrell, Will Wallace, Xavier Morigeau, Evans, Rausch, Bagnell, Detwiler and Linse finished their final season with a 42-18 record.
“We lose a lot of kids so we’ll have a rebuilding year, next year,” Hanson said, before correcting himself. “Or, we like to call it a reloading year, because all the young kids have played. It’ll just be a reloading year.”
“But, like I said, those kids,” Hanson said of his 10 departing players “will be greatly missed.”
Summary
Mission Valley 18, Gallatin Valley 6
Gallatin V. 1012020–694
Mission V. 460440x–18181
Chris Boyce, Ari Crawford (2) and Tyler McCoulley. Justin Evertz and Tim Rausch. W - Evertz. L - Boyce.
MISSION VALLEY — Kaileb Gillingham 2-3, Tyler Linse 3-4, Tim Rausch 2-3, Derrick Rathe 2-4, Justin Evertz 2-4, Matt Detwiler 2-4, Kyle Bagnell 2-3, Chris Alfiero 0-1, Justin Evans 2-5, Cory Hardy 2-5.
Great Falls 6, Mission Valley 2
Great Falls 330000000–661
Mission Valley 100000100–233
Tyson Patterson and Destin Wassman. Derrick Rathe, Kyle Bagnell (2) and Tim Rausch. W - Patterson. L - Rathe.
MISSION VALLEY - Kaileb Gillingham 0-3, Tyler Linse 0-4, Tim Rausch 0-3, Derrick Rathe 0-3, Justin Evertz 0-3, Matt Detwiler 0-4, Kyle Bagnell 1-3, Chris Alfiero 1-3, Cory Hardy 1-3.
Red Sox 8, Mission Valley 1
Mission V. 000010000–134
Bitterroot 10100042x–881
Tim Rausch, Jay Sorrell (8) and Kaileb Gillingham. Rodee Anderson and Austin Allen. W- Anderson. L - Rausch.
