Legion Baseball: Sunday brings wins for Mariners

HELENA - The Mari-ners A team bounced back from a rough Saturday at the Cloniger Classic in Helena with some hot bats and a sweep of Anaconda last Sunday.

Mission Valley collected 13 hits and enjoyed a 12-run top of the fourth to down Anaconda 17-3 in their first game. The M's saw multi-hit games from Jack Humphreys, Bradley Pichler, Kevin Hagedorn and Davin "The Pride of St. Ignatius" Sorrell.

The game was 5-2 in Mission Valley's favor be-fore their big inning, and Chris Clary picked up the pitching win as Anaconda was held to five hits. That put Mission Valley in the consolation game where they faced Anaconda again.

This time, the M's found themselves down 5-3 going into the bottom of the second. They again enjoyed an offensive avalanche, scoring 12 runs in one fierce frame. Finishing the game with 19 hits as a team, Mission Valley won 17-6.

Anaconda could muster just one run after the first inning. Sorrell drove in three runs, and Humpreys plated two in the victory. Kellen Hoyt picked up the win for the Mariners. In all, the M's were able to collect 32 hits against Anaconda in their two games.

Neither game went the full length due to the 10-run rule.

Helena 14, Mission Valley 4

A slow start hampered the Mariners and Helena jumped out to a 12-0 lead through the first two innings en route to a 14-4 victory. Helena collected 14 hits while Mission Valley com mitted five errors in the loss. Clary, Robbie Gauthier and Cole McArthur all drove in runs but a late rally of runs couldn't make up the difference.

Laurel 23, Mission Valley 0

The Mariners were short-handed against the Class A defending state champi-ons due to graduations last weekend. They were miss-ing key players in important positions and were held to two hits in the 23-0 loss.Laurel had 15 hits, and held a 14-0 lead through three innings.

Glacier Twins AA 5, Mission Valley 4

The Class AA Glacier Twins eeked by the Mariners with an RBI single in the eighth inning to take the 5-4 victory in Whitefish last Wednesday, June 1. In a very evenly-played matchup, Mission Valley rallied from a 2-0 deficit with two runs of their own in the top of the sixth. Gla-cier would answer back in the bottom of the frame to take the 3-2 lead.

Both teams would ex-change runs and Glacier took the one-run advan-tage while Mission Valley couldn't answer back in the top of the ninth. Dalton Molhzon led the team, going 1-for-4 with a double. Bradley Pichler and Jake Young drive in runs for the Mariners in the loss.

Offense leads B team to split with Dillon Cubs

Last Sunday, a football game broke out at O'Malley Park as the Mission Valley Mariners B team downed the Dillon Cubs 17-16 in a high-scoring first game of a doubleheader.

"Anytime you can put up 17 runs, you're going to be pleased with that," B team manager Chris Brown said.

The scoring got started in the bottom of the third, with Mission Valley trailing 2-0 to the Cubbies, Mike Bournstein moon-launched his first Legion home run to center field.

The Mariners ended up scoring three runs to take the lead in that frame. An error allowed Dil-lon to tie things up in the fourth, but Mission Valley answered back with a huge eight-run rally.

Two Eagle basketball stud Clay Malatare showed no rust from not playing baseball for a few years, hitting a double in his first at-bat for the Mariners. That drove in a run and sparked back-to-back-to-back RBI doubles by Malatare, Nick Crawford and Bournstein. Alex Killian drove in an other run off a base hit, and Ryan Martin had two RBI's off a hard single to help the M's take an 11-3 lead.

The Cubbies would comeback though and continue to chip away at the Mariners' lead, tying things up 16-16 in the top of the seventh.

"Defensively we were still a little sluggish," Brown said. "Because of the bad weather, we hadn't practiced on our field in a week and a half."

The Mariners B team was in Helena on Saturday to help the A team in tournament play, and didn't get home until 2:30 a.m. on Sunday. With the A team shorthanded because of graduation, many B team players played up and there was certainly some shuffling in defensive positions for the doubleheader with new players and players in new positions.

"Defensively it's definitely tough when kids haven't played together," Brown said. "You can't build chemistry in just two hours."

Zeke Webster-Yaqui, who had nine strikeouts while pitching four innings, provided the walk-off win for the Mariners in the bottom of the seventh. He walked to get on base, then stole second. When David Cleveland reached by an error, he was able to move the Zekemister over to third base.

A passed ball allowed Webstet-Yaqui to slide into home to score the winning run much to the adoration of the crowd at O'Malley Park.

"Those are always fun," Brown said of the walk-off win. "As a coach you'd rather just have a one-run lead and win the thing without the bottom of the seventh so your hair doesn't turn gray. But it's a lot of fun for the kids and it's definitely exciting for our fans."

It also highlighted the Mariners organization's ability to manufacture runs even without a hit.

"That's one thing we stress to the kids," Brown said. "We're doing our job by putting pressure on the defense. Good things are going to happen when you do that."

Webster-Yaqui finished the game, 3-for-4 with a double and an RBI, Malatare drove in two runs for the Mariners and Bournstein had his two extra-base hits and two RBIs.

In the second game, errors hurt the B team and the Cubs took the 9-4 victory. Brown said that he was really pleased with the pitching from his team in both games. Four pitchers combined for seven strikeouts and kept the walks to a minimum in the second part of the doubleheader, it was just miscues that allowed Dillon to take the advantage.

"Overall I was very pleased with the pitching staff," Brown said. "And we even had two of our new kids pitch (Malatare and Artie Mendoza) and they came in and threw strikes."

Malatare was an offensive star for the Mariners again, going 2-for-4 with an RBI. The Mariners trailed just 3-2 going into the top of the fifth. A four-run rally by the Cubs and an insurance run in both the sixth and seventh frame gave them the victory.

The B team was able to score two runs in the bottom of the

seventh, but their comeback came up short.

GLACIER 5, MVA 4

M - 000 - 002 - 110 - 4

G - 200 - 001 - 11x - 5

MV - 6 hits, 4 errors. Glacier - 7 hits, 0 errors

Mariners batting - Jack Humphreys 0-1, Davin Sorrell 0-2, Josh Rustad 1-4, Jake Young 1-3, Chris Clary 1-3, Robbie Gauthier 0-3, Kevin Hagedorn 0-4, Bradley Pichler 1-3, Kellen Hoyt 1-4, Dalton Molhzon 1-4.

Doubles - Molhzon. RBIs - Pichler, Young.

M Pitching - Rustad (5 IP), Hoyt (4 IP).

LAUREL 23, MVA 0

L - 527 - 54 - 23

M - 000 - 00 - 0

Laurel - 15 hits, 0 errors. MV - 2 hits, 4 errors

Mariners batting - Mike Bournstein 1-1, David Cleveland 0-1, Kevin Hagedorn 0-2, Chris Clary 1-2, Bradley Pichler 0-2, Robbie Gauthier 0-2, Zeke Webster-Yaqui 0-1, Chris Drabes 0-1, Cole McArthur 0-1, Alex Killian 0-1, Davin Sorrell 0-1, Brad Cannon 0-1, Dalton Molzhon 1-1.

Doubles - Clary.

M Pitching - Killian gets the loss.

HELENA 14, MVA 4

M - 001 - 21 - 4

H - 660 - 20 - 14

MV - 8 hits, 5 errors. Helena - 14 hits, 0 errors

Mariners batting - Jack Humpheys 0-3, Kevin Hagedorn 1-3, Chris Clary 1-3, Robbie Gauthier 2-3, Cole McArthur 1-3, Bradley Pichler 1-2, Ryan Martin 0-2, Alex Killian 0-2, Dalton Molzhon 2-2, Davin Sorrell 0-1.

Doubles- Pichler. Runs- Clary, Gauthier, Molzhon. RBIs - Clary, Gauthier, McArthur.

M Pitching - Molzhon gets the loss.

MVA 17, ANA. 3

M - 131 - (12)0 - 17

A - 200 - 01 - 3

MV - 13 hits, 1 error. Anaconda - 5 hits, 4 errors

Mariners batting - Jack Humphreys 2-4, Chris Clary 1-5, Cole McArthur 1-3, Robbie Gauthier 1-3, Bradley Pichler 2-3, Kevin Hagedorn 2-4, Kellen Hoyt 1-2, Davin Sorrell 2-2, Dalton Molzhon 1-2. Runs - Gauthier 3, Humphreys 2, Clary, McArthur, Pichler, Sorrell, Molhzon, Hagedorn, Hoyt.

M Pitching - Clary gets the win.

MVA 17, ANA. 6

A - 500 - 10 - 6

M - 3(12)1 - 10 - 17

Anaconda - 8 hits, 2 errors. MV - 19 hits, 1 errors

Mariners batting - Jack Humphreys 3-4, Chris Clary 2-4, Cole McArthur 0-2, Robbie Gauthier 2-3, Thomas Wallace 2-4, Kevin Hagedorn 3-4, Kellen Hoyt 2-3, Davin Sorrell 3-3, Dalton Molzhon 1-3.

Doubles - Humphreys. RBIs - Sorrell 3, Humphreys 2, Clary,

Gauthier, Hagedorn.

M Pitching - Hoyt gets the win.

MVB 17, DILLON 16

D - 002 - 136 - 4 - 16

M - 003 - 832 - 1 - 17

MV - 16 hits. Mariners batting - Mike Bournstein 2-3, Zeke Webster-Yaqui 3-4, David Cleveland 0-1, Chris Drebes 2-3, Jared Young 1-3, Alex Killian 3-4, Ryan Martin 1-3, Clay Malatare 1-1, Nick Crawford 2-4, Bradley Cannon 1-2, Artie Mendoza 0-1.

Doubles - Bournstein, Webster-Yaqui, Drebes, Malatare, Craw-

ford. HRs - Bournstein. RBIs - Bournstein 2, Malatare 2, Webster-Yaqui, Cleveland, Drebes, Martin, Cannon.

M Pitching - Webster-Yaqui (4 IP, 9K), Killian (1 1/3

IP), Young (1 IP), Cleveland (1 IP)

DILLON 9, MVB 4

D - 021 - 041 - 1 - 9

M - 100 - 100 - 2 - 4

MV - 8 hits. Mariners batting - Mike Bournstein 0-2, Zeke Webster-Yaqui 2-4, Clay Malatare 2-4, David Cleveland 1-3, Jarod Young 1-2, Ryan Martin 0-2, Artie Mendoza 1-3, Lucas Polk 0-1, Alex Killian 1-3, Chris Drebes 0-3, Bradley Cannon 0-1.

Doubles - Webster-Yaqui. RBIs - Malatare, Killian.

M Pitching - Cleveland (3 IP), Drebes (2 IP), Mendoza (1 IP), Malatare (1 IP).