Mariners find success under first-year skipper

Mission Valley Mariners’ coach Tim Rausch learned with his players in his first year as manager the “A” and “B” American Legion Teams.

“You know the first year as a manager is a learning experience,” Rausch said. “It was interesting. I did a lot of learning as much as the boys did. Overall, I thought it was a very good year. I came in with some high expectations and met quite a few of them.”

Rausch inherited a young M’s team with only two seniors. They finished with a 25-23 regular season record and a District victory over the Kalispell Lakers Thursday afternoon in Hamilton.

“We were a really young team, we had two seniors going into the year and our boys had to take care of what they needed to do to physically develop,” Rausch said. “It was a special season for this group of boys and I am excited about our prospects next year.”

According to Rausch, the M’s received significant contributions from two of their senior players, Tyson Petticrew and Bryant Hales.

“Both Tyson and Bryant were phenomenal in defense and in the outfield,” Rausch said. “They were really good and I knew the boys were going to track it down. They were monster threats on the bases and caused a lot of havoc for their opponents.”

The Mariners defeated the Kalispell Lakers in the first round of the District Tournament in Hamilton and lost to the Glacier Twins in the second round, finishing their season in the double-elimination tournament format.

“We did our job winning that first game like we were supposed to but we traveled back and forth and we just didn’t have much focus in the last game,” Rausch admitted. “We didn’t hit the ball very well. We did a great job against the Lakers and (the loss) was very disappointing because the effort just wasn’t there.”

During the course of the season, the M’s pitching staff became solid, according to Rausch. He is now starting to look forward to next year as the team handed in their jerseys and shut everything down for the season.

“At the beginning of the year, we struggled to throw strikes,” Rausch said. “We gave up quite a few runs across the board. We had some older kids outside of Tyson pitch along the way and we kept building our arm strength. Next year, it will be very exciting to see what the pitching staff can do.”

The majority of the team anticipates being back next year, according to Rausch.

“At this point, I am planning on returning to the Mariners next season,” Rausch said. “Hopefully this program will return to the success that I had as a player when I was 20-years-old. It has been a very successful season for our youth that we have on this team and I am very excited about the future of the Mariners going forward.”

The following are the box scores for the Mission Valley Mariners’ District games in Hamilton:

2018 Western A District Tourney

Vester Wilson Athletic Complex

Th-M, July 26-30

Hamilton, MT

top 2 teams advance to state

Mavs 7, MV Mariners 5 (lo)

MV Mariners (26-24)

Missoula 000 002 4 – 7 9 3

Mission Valley 000 110 3 – 5 10 2

Xavier Fisher, (7) James Bennett and Izyk Gillingham. Alex Certel and Andrew Claussen.

MISSOULA A MAVERICKS – Bridger Johnson 3-3(BB), Brendt DeMinck 2-3, Drew Stensrud 1-4, *Jake Lintner 1-2(BB), Cayden Jordan 0-4, Zach Hangas 0-3, Clayton Long 0-3, Claussen 1-3, Dayton Bay 1-2(B?)

MISSION VALLEY A MARINERS – Bryant Hales 1-3(BB), Tyson Petticrew 0-3(BB), Dylan Wisniewski 1-4, Corbin Davis 2-3(BB), Gillingham 1-4, Eric Dolence 0-3(BB), Keyan Dalbey 2-3(HB), Gabe Mergenthaler 1-4, X.Fisher 2-3.

2B – Dalbey; Johnson 2, Stensrud. RBIs – Wisniewski, Dalbey 3; Johnson 3, DeMinck 2, Stensrud, Lintner. SB – C.Davis 2. CS – Gillingham. (Sa29Jul18gm9dist)

Glacier Twins 9, MV Mariners 0

MV Mariners (26-23)

Mission Valley 000 000 0 – 0 2 4*

Whitefish 013 410 x – 9 8 2*

Tyson Petticrew, (4.2) Nate Ziegler, (4.2) Espn Fisher, (6) Gabe Mergenthaler and Izyk Gillingham. WP – Nathan Hader

MISSION VALLEY MARINERS – Bryant Hales 0-3, Tyson Petticrew 0-2, E. Fisher 0-1, Dylan Wisniewski 1-3, Corbin Davis 0-3, Gillingham 1-3, Eric Dolence 0-1(BB), Keyan Dalbey 0-2, James Bennett 0-2, Xavier Fisher 0-2.

GLACIER TWINS – Caleb Meehan *0-3(HB), Ryan Veneman 2-4, Coby Clark-Dickenson 1-3(BB), Terek Bistodeau 1-3(BB), Jack Schwaiger 0-2(2BB), Tom Hellwig 1-3, Forrest Kobelt 1-3, Dan Seymour 2-2(HB), Quintin Schriver *0-3.

HR – R.Veneman, Clark-Dickenson. 2B – Hellwig, *,Veneman; RBIs – Meehan, R.Veneman , Clark-Dickenson 3, Hellwig, Kobelt, Schriver. SB – Wisniewski. (Fr27Jul18gm7dist)

Asterisk (*) denotes stat variant(s) where MVM specs differ from GT data submitted to media: GT=MVM:1E/GT:11H – Meehan 2H (vs 2ROE?), Schriver 1H(2B vs ROE?).

MV Mariners 10, Lakers 8

MV Mariners (26-22)

Mission Valley 301 021 3 – 10 10 1*

Kalispell 200 400 2 – 8 11 5*

Dylan Wisniewski and Izyk Gillingham. LP—Ryan McDonald.

MISSION VALLEY MARINERS – Keyan Dalbey 1-3, Tyson Petticrew 1-5, Gillingham 0-4, Corbin Davis 3-4, Dylan Wisniewski 0-4, Eric Dolence 1-3, Bryant Hales 1-4, Gabe Merganthaler 0-3, Xavier Fisher 3-4.

KALISPELL A LAKERS – Ben Corriveau 1-2(3BB), Connor Drish 2-5, Payton Davisson 2-5, Thomas O’Connell 0-2(SF), McDonald *2-4, *Ryan Galvan 0-1, Nate Kelly 0-2(BB,HB), Jaydon Dillon 0-2(BB,HB), *Ethan Diede 0-0, Jack Corriveau 2-3(SH), Grant Marsh 2-4.

2B – Davis, Fisher; J.Corriveau, Davisson, McDonald. RBIs – Tyson Petticrew, Gillingham, C.Davis 2, Dolence, Hales, Fisher; Drish, Davisson 4, O’Connell, McDonald 2. (Th26Jul18gm1dist)

Asterisk (*) denotes stat variant(s) where MVM specs differ from KL data submitted to media: DIL=MVM:3H(typo? doesn’t correspond w/ lineup sequence. Unable to xref w/ out of focus MVM specs)/KL:10H – McDonald 1H:3ab, Kelly 4pa(MVM: no Galvan listed in lineup), Dillon 4pa(MVM: no Diede listed in lineup),

other 2018 District scores:

championship

Glacier Twins 15, Root Sox 8

third place

‘Root Sox 8, Bucs 7

fourth place

Bucs 5, Mavs 4

Glacier Twins 4, ‘Root Sox 0

‘Root Sox 13, Bucs 2

Bucs 6, Lakers 5 (lo)

Glacier Twins 13, Loggers 3

Bucs 10, Mavs 2

‘Root Sox 8, Cranbrook 4

Mavs 7, Cranbrook 2 (lo)

Lakers 8, Loggers 7 (lo)

ABBREVIATION KEY:

‘Root Sox (Bitterroot Red Sox), Bucs (Bitterroot Buccaneers), Mavs (Missoula Mavericks), Loggers (Libby Loggers), Cranbrook (Cranbrook Bandits), Lakers (Kalispell Lakers)

results can be viewed online at the Red Sox facebook page or

< https://www.montanalegionbaseball.org >