Mariners get two conference wins in home opener

The Mission Valley Mariners picked up two conference wins in their home opener Saturday, scratching out an ugly, come-from-behind win 13-12 in the first game before coasting to a 10-run win behind a no-hitter from Brandon Thompson in the second.

In the first game, Tim Gauthier had the game-winning hit in the bottom of the eighth inning, capping off the second time the team scored four or more runs in one inning to capitalize on some Bitterroot Red Sox mistakes.

Brandon Roy got the win in the first, after Gauthier pitched the first four innings, while Thompson had the complete game in the second one. Roy and Thompson both improved to 2-0 on the year.

"We had eight errors and they had six. 'Ugly' was a nice way of putting it," head coach Jami Hanson said of the first game. "But I was very pleased with the kids. They didn't just lie down when they were down by four runs."

The team tied it at four in the third before taking a 9-4 lead in the fourth before the Red Sox bounced back with four runs in the fifth. But the Mariners scraped together three runs in the sixth to take what they thought would be the game behind key hits from Tyler Trudeau and John Rausch, only to watch the Sox get four runs in the top of the eighth.

Rausch went 2-for-4 and his RBI shot up the middle tied it in the seventh. In the eighth, the Mariners were one out away from a loss when the Sox' shortstop bobbled an underhand toss from his second baseman from three feet away for what would have been the end of the game.

Still fighting, Beau Nordberg, who had led off the inning by reaching on an earlier error, stole second. The next batter hit a shot to third that was snagged by the Sox third baseman with a tremendous dive to his left. He reached up to tag Nordberg, but the ball popped loose on contact, and the Mariners were on their ninth life at that point.

Gauthier came to bat and hit the game winner, scoring Nordberg from third on a bases-loaded shot through the infield. Gauthier was only 1-for-5 on the day — with some key bunts — but had three RBI's, Hanson noted. The team also had some shots that would have been homers had the winning not been blowing in so strong. Thompson, Trudeau and Jake Bosley all had deep, high shots that ended up being blown 10, 20 or more feet toward home plate.

"We actually hit the ball well, but the wind held it up. I counted about four extra-base hits in the first few innings that were taken away from us," Hanson said.

He had praise for Roy, who came in as a middle reliever again. In Gauthier's defense, a lot of the runs against him were unearned.

"Brandon's our little rubber arm. We're going to keep using him in that capacity," Hanson said of his middle relief role.

In the second game, Thompson went 3-for-3 at the plate, while Trudeau was 2-for-4, Bosley was 2-for-3 and Rausch was also 2-for-3.

Thompson issued six walks and hit three batters, but struck out 10, most of them swinging. Hanson said the only flaw was that he had a tough time getting the lead-off batters each inning.

"That's something we have to work on," he said.

The team had some mental baserunning errors and some fielding errors in the first game but looked completely different in the second. Hanson said the little things will come along as the season gets going. All in all, it was two conference wins.

"Those two games being conference games were huge for us. That bumps us up right there," Hanson said.

Sunday's games against Butte were postponed. The team traveled to Missoula to face the Mavs Wednesday night, but results weren't available by press time. The team travels to play the Bitterroot Bucs on Saturday before hosting the Kalispell Lakers on Sunday for a nine-inning game, staring at 1 p.m.