Mariners now 31-6; take third at Whitefish tourney

Zach Urness

Leader Staff

The Mission Valley Mariners took third place at the Ed Gallo Tournament in Whitefish last weekend and swept the Salmon Savages on Monday and Kalispell A on Tuesday night, to move to 12-0 in the conference and 33-6 overall.

"Our bats are starting to wake up again," said head coach Jami Hanson. "I think the kids are deciding to believe that they're one of the best teams in the state again."

The M's had their 12-game winning streak snapped in a semi-final matchup against the Glacier Twins, 9-8, after the Twins (8-15) scored in the bottom of the seventh inning to take home the upset win at the Ed Gallo tourney.

But the M's came back and salvaged third place in the tournament with a 7-6 win over Libby. They also beat Kootenai Valley 10-0 and Pullman Posse 8-2 in the first two days of the tournament.

"We just were not hitting the ball," commented Hanson. "You're going to have games like that throughout the season though, you have to remember that these are still kids and they're going to have some off days."

On Monday and Tuesday, the Mariners returned to O'Maley Park for the first time since May 27th and swept both Salmon and Kalispell.

The M's next home game is today (Thursday, June 28) at home against Kalispell AA beginning at 4:30.

Mariners 19, Kalispell 4 (first game)

Mission Valley Mariners bombed five home runs in their first game against Kalispell A on Tuesday, and won the game in five innings via the 10-run rule. Brandon Thompson, Cubby Pierre, Joe McCarthy, Will Gordon and John Rausch all hit round-trippers and Spencer Tarwick pitched the first three innings before handing the ball to McCarthy to close out the game.

Mariners 16, Kalispell 4 (second game)

Derrick Rathe pitched the whole way in the second game, to bring Mission Valley's new winning streak to five games.

"Every body got into the act," said Hanson of the second game.

Mariners 10, Salmon 0 (first game)

Beau Nordberg was efficient from the mound on Monday, controlling both sides of the plate in a one-hit, five strikeout performance in his first win of the season.

The M's dominated the game on offense as well, scoring in every inning and amassing nine hits. Tyler Linse, who went 2-for-2, got things going with a two-run single to right field in the first, to help the M's take a 4-0 lead.

Will Gordon knocked in a wind-blown single to score another run in the second inning and John Rausch got one in the third, to give the Mariners a 7-0 lead after three innings.

Tim Rausch scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the fifth to end the game via the mercy rule, 10-0.

Mariners 5, Salmon 4 (Second Game)

The second game of the day was a much closer affair for the M's who used three pitchers to pull out the win. The turning point in the game came when Joe McCarthy, with two outs in the fifth inning, scored on a wild pitch, giving the Mariners a 5-4 lead they would not relinquish.

McCarthy also picked up his first win of the season from the mound, taking over for Mike Fisher in the third inning, and held the Savages to three hits while striking out five over the final four innings.

Brandon Thompson, Derek Rathe and Nick Fell each had RBIs in the game to fuel the offense.

Mariners 10, Kootenai Valley 0

WHITEFISH-The Mariners rolled over Kootania Valley last Thursday in the opening game of the Ed Gallo memorial class A American Legion baseball tourney. Eric Locke continued his mastery on the mound, giving up just two hits through five innings while striking out 10 to earn his fifth win of the season.

Big Brandon Thompson helped the M's to what, at the time, was their 11th straight victory with three hits and two RBIs. Tyler Linse and John Rausch had three hits and three RBIs between them, and Will Gordon, Chris Bagnell, Tim Rausch and Cubby Pierre had one RBI each in the win.

Mariners 8, Pullman Posse 2

Brandon "Hobbs" Roy helped the Mariners pick up their second win of the tournament with a 10 strikeout performance for his fifth victory of the season.

The Mariner offense was helped along by a sloppy Pullman team that committed three errors and had a plethora of wild pitches and walks to score their first four runs.

Craig Bagnell and Will Gordon had singles and drove in one run each as the Mariners advanced to the tournaments semi-final game against the host Glacier Twins.

Glacier Twins 9, Mariners 8

The M's were unable to overcome the Twins' home-field advantage in the tournament's semi-final game on Friday night and found themselves on the losing side for the first time in two weeks. The loss snapped the Mariners 12-game winning streak and dropped them out of a chance to play for the tourney championship.

The Mariners dug themselves into a 5-1 hole through the first three innings, but rallied for four runs in the top of the fourth inning to tie the game at 5-5. Glacier then scored three runs in the fifth to take a 8-5 lead, but once again, Mission Valley tied the game in the sixth, setting the stage for a dramatic seventh inning.

The M's were unable to score in the top of the seventh, however, and Glacier's Jack Cronin singled to right field to score the game's winning run.

Mariners 7, Libby 6

Tim Rausch had overpowering stuff on the mound in Saturday's third place game, striking out 12 batters en route to his third win of the season.

Mission Valley had 12 hits in the game, including three from Brandon Thompson and two from Tim Rausch. Kyle Brown had a nice game for the Mariners at the plate, going 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI and Will Gordon also doubled.

The game got a little too close for comfort in the bottom of the sixth when Libby scored four runs to cut the Mariner lead to 7-6 going into the seventh inning.

But the M's held on, holding Libby scoreless and took home a third place trophy.