Mariners enjoy good weekend

LEWISTOWN - The Mission Valley Mariners had a successful weekend and will need many more as the team gets ready to enter the stretch part of the season. They're on the right track after going 3-1 in the Lewistown Redbird Round Robin.

After driving seven hours last Friday, the Mariners greeted their hosts by handing the Lewistown A team a 6-5 defeat. They received excellent performances at the plate by Tyler Linse, who went 2-for-4, and Willie Wallace; who had two doubles, going 2-for-2.

After falling 5-3 to Lewistown, the Mariners were able to score two runs in the top of the seventh and then get the go-ahead run off an error on a ground ball that scored Xavier Morigeau.

The next day, Mission Valley gave the Lewistown B team a slightly rougher treatment, beating them 10-0. The team came up with 10 hits on the box score and Mariners' pitcher Matt Detwiler threw a one-hitter through five complete innings.

They were then dealt their only loss of the weekend when they fell to Ft. McCloud 12-4 on Sunday morning.

"Way too many errors, we had six errors and each error cost us one or two runs," Mission Valley Mariners head coach Jami Hanson said.

However, in the afternoon game on Sunday the result was quite different. The Mariners were able to swat around Great Falls 9-5 and finish the weekend on a winning note.

"We scored every inning and that makes a tremendous difference," Hanson said. "The kids knew what they had to do."

Now at 12-10, the Mariners have to focus down the stretch of their schedule.

"Too many things are taking precedence over baseball," Hanson said. "We've got to get back to the commitment."

The Mariners' next game is against the Missoula Mavericks at 4 p.m. on June 17 in Polson.

B Team Update

The Mission Valley Mariners B team have started to come around and have shown significant signs of growth.

They kicked off last week with a Thursday game against the Missoula Mavericks A team. While playing them tough, they eventually fell 6-5.

Mariners head coach Chris Brown said that the team started to approach the plate more patiently and it's starting to show up in the game results.

They swept the Kalispell Lakes in a double-header on Friday with an 11-1 drubbing in Game 1 that saw Robb Gauthier pitch a complete game with nine strikeouts while only giving up two hits.

The offense was largely powered by home runs from Cole McArthur, Jake Young, Chris Clary and Dolton Molzhon.

In Game 2, the Mariners received another great pitching performance, this time from Kellen Hoyt, who went for the complete game, striking out seven and giving up just three hits.

"That gets the pitcher frustrated," Brown said.

The next day, Mission Valley came out flat against the Kootenai Valley Rangers and dropped the first game 10-3.

"We gave up seven runs in the first two innings and played them even after that," Brown said. "We could never get a rally going."

The flat start had Brown worried as the team had done that before during the season. He thought that it could possibly carry over into the second game of the day.

"They'll come out flat for the first two or three innings and you can't do that against Legion teams or they'll jump all over you," Brown said.

The second game was considerably different as both Gauthier and Molzhon had two hits apiece and the team got on the board quickly with four runs in the second inning.

Austin Von Tom was on the mound for the Mariners and struck out six while giving up just four hits in 6 1/3 innings.

"He pitched very, very well; he was around the zone and that's what we ask for," Brown said. "Throw strikes and have the defense get the batters out."

The Mariners B team's next game is against the Libby Loggers at 4 p.m. on June 21 in Polson.