Mission Valley Rockies split games

ST. IGNATIUS - The Mission Valley Rockies (5-3 overall) dropped two games before winning a pair last weekend.

The Senior Babe Ruth team is in its second year after "many lessons quickly last year," head coach Alan Anderson said.

The Rockies lost twice to the three-time defending state champion Missoula Pioneers last Saturday by scores of 9-5 and 10-2.

"They are a solid team," Anderson said.

In the first game, Kasey Sykes crossed the plate on Curt Seidel's single in the fifth inning. The Rockies added on more in the sixth before crossing three in the sevenths. Seidel started with a single and Eneas Inmee and Jame Petersen followed suit as all three scored but it wasn't enough to tie the game.

Justin Hoel went 2-for-2 with an RBI and Sykes went 2-for-3.

In the second game, the Pioneers scored four in the second before Petersen hit a double, advanced to second on Devin Kamarainen's single and scored on Riley Grogan's walk. Hoel was the Rockies' other run. After walking, he went to went to second on Kamarainen's walk and scored on Grogan's single in the fifth inning.

The next day was a better one, with the Rockies winning twice over the Clark Fork Valley Cougars.

Inmee started on the mound, not allowing a run in three innings with three strikeouts.

"He did a really good job," Anderson said.

After a slow first and second innings, Petersen and Inmee scored runs after Inmee hit a double.

The fourth inning started where the third ended as Grogan reached first. He moved to second on Garrett Herron's single and scored on Seidel's single.

Herron and Seidel each scored on Petersen's triple. Inmee knocked him in with a double before scoring on Sykes' single for a five-run inning and a 7-0 lead.

The Cougars fought back with a seven-run inning of their own but Mission Valley battled back with six runs in the last two innings.

For the last four innings, 15-year-old Jeremiah Crawford came to the mound and allowed only one run and striking out the last three batters of the game.

"It was real important just to get out of the inning," Anderson said.

His young age isn't a factor, Anderson said, as Crawford is "just as big, if not bigger than some of those guys."

Sykes went 3-for-5 with a double and four RBIs and Dinnell went 2-for-2 with two RBIs.

Petersen came into start on the mound during the second game after Herron put the Rockies in the lead with a two-run home run.

The Cougars pulled ahead to a 6-5 lead in the second inning of the second game.

Kamarainen pitched a one, two, three third inning after the Rockies earned three runs. He allowed only three runs on five innings pitched.

"He was our winning pitcher," Anderson said. "He might be our top guy. He's really good."

In the fifth, everyone batted as five runs crossed the plate, including two on Kamarainen's double.

The Rockies seem to gain a lead before having one rough inning, Anderson said. With six errors in the fourth inning of the first Cougar game, Clark Fork was able to even the score.

"We seem to have one inning that kills us," he said. "We still made them in the second [game], but we can clean those up."

This weekend the Rockies head to Libby to play in a wood-bat tournament filled with many Legion teams.

"I think we'll do okay," Anderson said. "We return 11 players, so they know the ropes."