Mariners No. 2 at Libby tourney

LIBBY — After splitting games in Helena, the Mission Valley Mariners put together one of their best weekends so far at the Libby tourney, taking second place against plenty of out-of-state competition.

At Helena, Mission had a rough start going down 11-1 in the first game.

“It was just ugly, brutal, not good,” Mariners coach Jami Hanson said. “But then we had a talk about thinking.”

The Mariners refocused after that chat and rebounded to win 10-3 in the second game. It was the start of very good things for the Mariners.

At the Libby tournament, the Mariners knocked in three homers in their first game, a trend they would continue as the tournament wore on.

“Long balls seemed to help us out this weekend,” Hanson said.

Kyle Bagnell, Tyler Linse and Tim Rausch all smacked dingers in the 10-0 win over Saint Maries of Idaho. Rausch went 3-for-4 with two RBIs. Bagnell was the biggest story, throwing the entire game and giving up just one hit. He had 10 strikeouts in six innings of work.

“Kyle threw real well and they struggled a bit against him,” Hanson said.

The Mariners started another trend that would stick through three games - they didn’t have a single error.

In the next match that day against Prairie out of Washington, Spencer Trawick pitched five innings and Josh Rustad relieved him to finish the 8-0 shutout. Trawick had eight strikeouts and Rustad had two.

The team completed the day with zero errors.

Linse went 3-for-3, Bagnell went 2-for-4 and Linse, Rausch, Bagnell and Derrick Rathe all hit doubles.

The next day, the Mariners took down the GK Eagles out of Seattle, 10-6. This time Xavier Morigeau was the Mariners’ star from the mound, pitching the majority of the game before Rustad finished things off with some mean curve balls.

“He threw extremely well. That the Xavier that we know can throw. He threw very well,” Hanson said.

Rausch hit a grand slam in the third at his second at-bat to lead his team in offense.

“It was just an all-around good game,” Hanson said, adding that it completed a 3-game streak without a Mariner error.

It earned the Mariners a spot in the championship against the South Hills Stingers of Seattle, where they finally fell, 6-5.

Justin Evans pitched five complete innings, then Rustad came in to finish things off. This time, one of his pitches finally hung in there to give up an opportunity. The Stingers’ big bat took it for a homer and finished the game in the seventh.

“That’s baseball. That’s the way it goes sometime,” Hanson said, adding that it was the first pitch that got away from Rustad in two weeks.

Justin Evertz went 2-for-4, as did Bagnell. Matt Detwiler only got one hit for the Mariners but made it count, blasting a 3-run dinger in the third. It followed Bagnell’s 2-run RBI double in the same inning.

The Mariners had just one error in the championship.

All in all, it was a very good week for the Mariners, Hanson said.

The Mariners hosted the Missoula Mavericks for a makeup game on Tuesday and go to the Deer Lodge Wood Bat tourney this weekend.