ERRORS DING UP MARINERS B TEAM
POLSON — The box score didn’t tell the full story for the Mission Valley Mariners B team on Sunday when it faced the Class A Kalispell Lakers. Mission Valley played them tough but dropped both games 6-0 and 5-1. The Mariners’ pitching staff put in some good work, but one inning of errors in both games allowed the Lakers to slip away with the two wins.
POLSON — The box score didn’t tell the full story for the Mission Valley Mariners B team on Sunday when it faced the Class A Kalispell Lakers. Mission Valley played them tough but dropped both games 6-0 and 5-1. The Mariners’ pitching staff put in some good work, but one inning of errors in both games allowed the Lakers to slip away with the two wins.
Mission Valley played 12 innings of errorless ball and the pitching staff did its job against the higher classification Lakers. There were just two innings in the doubleheader where the Mariners committed a combined six errors that allowed Kalispell to do most of its damage.
“It’s definitely good seeing the kids play that well for 12 innings defensively,” manager Chris Brown said. “We just made a few minor mistakes and if we can fix those and stay consistent, than we can turn those back-to-back losses into wins.”
The Mariners’ pitching certainly put them in a position to do that. In the first game, Chris Drebes started the game looking like a giant-killer, shutting down opposing pitchers until the fourth inning. With both teams tied 0-0, Mission Valley committed four errors in the frame and allowed five unearned runs.
Kalispell scored another run in the top of the sixth, but the majority of the damage came in just one frame in a 6-0 defeat. It couldn’t erase a promising outing by Drebes, who looked commanding out on the mound.
“I was very pleased with the way Chris pitched,” Brown said. “All of the pitchers threw consistently. Chris has been very good and you can see an improvement from last season.”
Drebes went five innings, gave up six hits and had six strikeouts. All the five runs scored against him were unearned.
Bradley Cannon came in and finished out the final two innings, allowing two hits and one run.
“The pitchers came in and did their job in both games,” Brown said. “Kalispell had hits but they were nothing special, a lot of little dinks and bloops.”
In the second game, Mission Valley jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning after leadoff hitter Ryan Pablo reached first on a single, advanced to second on a wild pitch, moved to third after a groundout and came home on a wild pitch. The Mariners would have that lead until the top of the third when Kalispell plated two runs off two straight groundouts with baserunners on.
In the top of the fourth, errors again allowed three runs to score and Kalispell took a 5-1 lead. Mission Valley threatened with two runners on in the bottom of the fifth, but didn’t capitalize and finished the game with three hits.
Pablo, David Cleveland and Alex Killian all got hits for the Mariners. However, hitting was a bit slow this week since the players had several important school obligations they had to attend to and didn’t get as many reps in during practice.
“There was a lot of extra curricular stuff going on this week and that’s tough for kids with so much going on,” Brown said.
However, considering the errors were just in one inning in each game, the M’s could have easily turned both games around and come out with wins. They’ll get another crack at a Class A team this Sunday as the A and B teams both host the Glacier Twins in a doubleheader. The B team will play the Twins at 1 p.m. and the Mariners will honor Mothers’ Day before the game.
KALI 6, MV 0
K - 000 - 501 - 0 - 6
M - 000 - 000 - 0 - 0
Kalispell - 8 hit, 2 errors. MV - 2 hits, 4 errors
Mariners batting - Ryan Pablo 0-3, Jared Young 1-3, Alex Killian 0-3, Chris Drebes 0-3, David Cleveland 1-3, Jacob Herrod 0-3, Quinn Harlan 0-1, Aaron Rassmussen 0-2, JT Probst 0-2.
MV Pitching - Drebes (5 IP), Brad Cannon (2 IP)
KALI. 5, MV 1
K - 002 - 300 - 0 - 5
M - 100 - 000 - 0 - 1
Kalispell - 7 hits, 0 errors. MV - 3 hits, 2 errors
Mariners batting - Ryan Pablo 1-3, Jared Young 0-3, David Cleveland 1-3, Alex Killian 1-3, Chris Drebes 0-2, Ian Ricketts 0-3, Niqolas Gillingham 0-2, Quinn Harland 0-2, JT Probst 0-2, Bradley Cannon 1-1.
MV Pitching - David Cleveland (3 1/3 IP), JT Probst
(1 2/3 IP), Ryan Pablo (2 IP)