Rockies batter the competition

BONNER — The Mission Valley Rockies split on Saturday before rain put an early end to Pioneer Daze. The dreadful weather couldn’t erase the fact that the Rockies are a growing power in Senior Babe Ruth and still look to be one of the top teams come state tournament time.

BONNER — The Mission Valley Rockies split on Saturday before rain put an early end to Pioneer Daze. The dreadful weather couldn’t erase the fact that the Rockies are a growing power in Senior Babe Ruth and still look to be one of the top teams come state tournament time.

After the Helena All-Stars snuck by Mission Valley in the first game on Saturday, using a three-run sixth inning for the 6-3 victory, the Rockies responded like Darth Vader in

“The Empire Strikes Back” with a 14-5 win over the Great Falls Hawks. Mission Valley has now won five of its last seven games.

“I was really proud of how the boys responded,” Rockies manager Alan Anderson said. “It feels pretty good because sometimes when you play multiple games in one day, you don’t know how your team is going to come out game-by-game.”

In the first game, the Rockies took an early 2-0 lead in the second inning against Helena but the All-Stars came back for the 6-3 win. They tied things up with two runs in the top of the third, and then scored a run in the fifth. While the Rockies scored a run in the sixth to tie things back up and had several runners in scoring position to break the game wide open, but they just couldn’t quite find the timely hit. Six errors also nicked up Mission Valley, and Helena collected 11 hits as a team. Anderson felt that the bats struggled a bit in the first game, but obviously bounced back in the second.

The Rockies had some bright spots in the first game though, as Ryan Turner went 3-for-4, while Nick Grogan and Chris Geiber both drove in runs. Jeremiah Crawford and James Ruleson both had doubles. In the second game, every Rockies player recorded a hit as they took down Great Falls by a huge 14-5 margin.Bash brothers Grogan and Turner started off the lineup with three hits apiece.

Turner finished the weekend 7-for-8. Grogan had a double. Brady Ovitt had perhaps the most productive day, driv-ing in four runs and going 2-for-3. Crawford and Eric Milner both had an RBI as well. Mission Valley scored six runs in the second inning, in-cluding a three-run single by Ovitt and a two-run double by Banks Stocking. The Rockies scored three more runs in the third with an RBI by Sorrell, another RBI by Ovitt and a wild pitch that allowed Ruleson to score from third. In the top of the fourth, Milner, Geiber and Davin Sorrell each drove in runs, and in the fifth, Crawford collected an RBI while a passed ball allowed another to score. Sorrell started the game and pitched three innings, al-lowing just three hits.

Then Stocking came in and pitched the final two innings, striking out four and allowing just one hit.

“We just have to play our game,” Anderson said. “I feel like we were definitely better than the first team. Lately offensively, we’re putting up a lot of runs. We’ve worked on hitting the ball a lot at practice.”

Next weekend, Mission Valley will head to the Helena Father’s Day Invitational in Miles City. While tournaments tend to require more pitching arms than a weekend doubleheader, the deep Rockies team should be up to the challenge.

“Our kids have begun to realize that we can turn this around even if we’re in a hole during the game,” Anderson said. “We don’t have a weak player on the team. Any guy can get it done.”

Mission Valley enters a stretch of three tournaments in the next three weeks. They’ll also get their full roster together for the first time this season since kids were away with school sports and academic obligations.

“They’re really getting confident as a team, not just individuals,” Anderson said.

HELENA 6 , MV 3

MV - 020 - 001 - 3

H - 002 - 013 - 6

MV - 6 hits, 6 errors. Helena - 11 hits, 2 errors

Rockies batting - Nick Grogan 1-3, Ryan Turner 4-4, Eric Milner 0-2, Banks Stocking 0-0, Jeremiah Crawford 1-3, Ryan Anderson 0-2, Chris Geiber 1-2, Brady Ovitt 0-1, James Ruleson 1-2, Davin Sorrell 0-3, Damian Mathis 0-3. 2B - Ruleson, Anderson. RBIs - Grogan, Geiber. Rockies Pitching - Eric Milner and Jeremiah Crawford.

MV 14, G-FALLS 5

MV - 063 - 32 - 14

GF - 003 - 20 - 5

MV - 16 hits, 3 errors. Great Falls - 4 hits, 7 errors

Rockies batting - Nick Grogan 3-4, Ryan Turner 3-4, Banks Stocking 1-4, Jeremiah Crawford 1-4, Eric Mil-ner 2-3, James Ruleson 2-4, Chris Geiber 1-2, Davin Sorrell 1-3, Brady Ovitt 2-3. 2B - Grogan, Milner. RBIs - Stocking 2, Crawford, Milner, Sorrell 2, Ovitt 4. Rockies Pitching - Davin Sorrell (3 hits, 3IP, 3 runs, 3K), Banks Stocking (1 hit, 2IP, 4K, 2 runs)