12U Polson Pirate All-Stars make it to Elite Eight

HAMILTON - In the game of baseball, it's all how you finish the

season - just ask the 2010 San Francisco Giants.

HAMILTON - In the game of baseball, it's all how you finish the season - just ask the 2010 San Francisco Giants.

The 12U Polson Pirate All-Stars had won their first games just three weeks ago. Then, they streaked to a second-place in divisionals for a berth in the state tournament two weekends ago.

And at the state tournament? They finished in the Elite Eight and capped off a successful postseason for the city of Polson.

"It was just amazing how the kids started playing at the end of the year," coach Clint Chowning said. "They poured their hearts out last weekend at that tournament."

In their first game of the state tournament, the Pirates used home runs from Shane Rehbein and Cadis Chowning to power their way to an 11-7 victory over Corvallis. It was Rehbein's first home run of the year and it just so happened to come on his 13th birthday.

Glasgow would down Polson in the next game, a close 2-1 battle as the All-Stars just couldn't quite find that key rally to make a breakthrough.

"We just couldn't get our bats going," Chowning said.

Next up for the Pirates was a highly regarded Belgrade team, and Polson battled them to a 1-1 tie through the third inning. However, the ball didn't quite bounce the right way and Belgrade was able to escape with a 10-4 victory.

Chowning and his team felt they had a good chance of downing the powerhouse.

"We should have had those guys and we felt pretty good after that loss with the way we played them," Chowning said.

Matt Rensvold and Jonah Burke both had home runs in the game.

That tied Polson for the seventh seed with Lewistown and after a coin flip, Polson was made the eight seed in bracket play. They started things off with a bang, beating Elk Horn 4-3 to move on.

Cadis Chowning pitched five good innings for the Pirates in that game and Marquise Askan wrapped up the game with one and two-thirds innings of solid relief.

In their next game, they faced up against Belgrade again and this one was an epic for the ages.

Matt Rensvold took the mound for the Pirates and held the hard-swinging Belgrade team in check for six innings.

After falling behind 2-0 in the bottom of the first, Polson used the top of the second to do some serious damage.

Rensvold hit a double with two outs and the bases loaded two score two. That brought Noah McDonald up to the plate and he proceeded to blastoff a monster home run that scored three more runs.

"He hit the home run so far that it landed in the infield of the Legion Field next door," Chowning said. "It looked like it cleared the fence by 40 feet. It was massive."

Polson would take a 6-2 lead, and they would hold a 6-4 lead going into the bottom of the sixth.

Belgrade was about to work some baseball magic though, and with two-on with two outs, their leadoff batter hit a home run for the walk-off win.

"We were pretty shocked," Chowning said. "They were some pretty teary eyes."

However, that couldn't erase just how well the Polson team played this year.

"When we started the season, I didn't expect to end where we ended," Chowning said.

He added it was a team effort the entire way.

"The chemistry was great," Chowning said. "We had different personalities up and down the lineup."

During the state tournament, the team camped down by the Bitterroot River, playing kickball and going fishing when they weren't playing baseball.

"I think they really blended well as a team and they were all there to win," Chowning said.

A large core of this team will move up to play Babe Ruth baseball next year and judging from their past performances, there are good things in the future for them.

"Everyone of those kids are looking forward to next year," Chowning said.