Pitching propels Mariners

LIBBY - The Mission Valley Mariners had a good pitching weekend.

So good, in fact, that they only allowed only seven runs in four games, en route to a second-place finish at the Big Bucks Tournament over the weekend in Libby.

The weekend started out with the Mariners blowing up St.. Maries with a 14-2 victory.

The next game had decidedly lower scoring, with Mission Valley eeking out a 1-0 victory over Moscow in a pitchers duel.

"It was the way baseball is supposed to be played," Mariners head coach Jame Hanson said.

Xavier Morigeau was on the mound for the Mariners and only allowed six hits in the match up.

The Mariners' bats got back on track for the third game, as they handed Kootenai Valley a 13-0 loss. The Mariners had 11 hits to Kootenai Valley's four.

The bats seemed to heat up as the game went on. In the first inning with two outs, the Mariners scored three runs. Then in the third they scored two more runs. In the fourth, they scored four times and in the fifth, they scored a handful of runs.

That got the Mariners to the championship game of the tournament against the host Libby Loggers.

Justin Evans was on the mound and gave up just two hits while Jay Sorrell gave up one hit in relief. However, the Mariners committed nine errors that spelled the difference in the 3-2 loss.

"We lost the game, we didn't get beat," Hanson said.

Now at 19-13, the Mariners will get ready for their home Firecracker Tournament this weekend in Polson.

B-Team Update

The B-team went 4-1 at the M. Walsh Memorial Tournament over the weekend in Deer Lodge. Tie-breakers prevented the Mariners from getting into the championship game.

The team won their first game in dramatic fashion, throwing a runner out at home to end the game and earn an 8-7 victory over the Great Falls Stallions.

Then the team rode that momentum with a complete game one-hitter by Austin Von Tom to a 17-0 victory over Anaconda.

Chris Clary was vital on offense, hitting a grand slam his first at bat in the game and then a three-run homer with his second appearance at the plate. He finished the game with eight RBIs.

In game three of the weekend, Robbie Gautheir shut down Helena with a three-hit shutout.

The Mariners struck with four runs in the third and an insurance run in the sixth for the victory.

Their lone blemish of the weekend was a 6-3 defeat at the hands of Dillon.

"We kind of beat ourselves, we had two errors, we kind of let a couple kids score," Mariners head coach Chris Brown said.

The Mariners only gave up two earned runs in that game and the rest were from miscues. The loss proved costly as they tied with two other teams with a 3-1 record and one of those teams was Dillon. Due to tie-breaker rules, the Mariners didn't advance to the championship game.

Their weekend wasn't over as they handled Deer Lodge with an 11-0 consolation win.

"That was a hit bonanza," Brown said.

The Mariners also earned their third shutout of the weekend.

Kellen Hoyt pitched masterfully, allowing two hits and just three walks.

"They had one kid get to second base," Brown said.

Two things that stood out about this tournament was that the Mariners were a B team playing in an A tournament, and it was also a wood bat tournament.

"It was really nice to see the kids take good approaches at the plate," he said.

The Mariners B team will get ready for the Firecracker Tournament this weekend in Polson.