Mariners: In a class of their own

KALISPELL — With nearly everyone returning from last year’s team that finished second in the Class A Legion state tournament, the Mission Valley Mariners have high expectations. However, sweeping two Class AA teams in four games last weekend? That’s all gravy.

KALISPELL — With nearly everyone returning from last year’s team that finished second in the Class A Legion state tournament, the Mission Valley Mariners have high expectations. However, sweeping two Class AA teams in four games last weekend? That’s all gravy.

“I think that’s a first for us,” Mariners manager Jami Hanson said. “We’ve played Class AA teams tough before and we’d take a game here or there but we haven’t swept them like that.”

On Saturday, Mission Valley locked the Glacier Twins’ bats in the closet and threw the key away in two wins by scores of 3-1 and 12-2. They followed it up by coming from behind in two games on Sunday against the Kalispell Lakers, winning 10-8 and 9-6.

The M’s have now won seven straight and have an overall record on the season of 7-2.

VS. GLACIER

Mission Valley got two golden performances by its starting pitchers and surged to a doubleheader sweep of the Class AA Glacier Twins on Saturday despite chilly Planet Hoth like conditions. The Twins could muster just six hits in two games of play against the likes of Justin Evertz and Dalton Molzhon.

In the first game, Austin Von Tom drove in two runs and the Mariners rode Evertz’s two-hitter to a 3-1 victory.

“Austin is on fire,” Hanson said. “He’s been swinging a hot stick.”

Von Tom has driven in runs and gotten a least a hit in his past six games. He finished 2-for-3 in the first game. Meanwhile, Evertz struck out five Glacier batters and pitched six scoreless innings after the Twins plated a run on an error in the top of the first inning.

“He’s going to do that all year,” Hanson said of Evertz, who pitched a no-hitter in the state tournament. “His sharpness will be back.”

Mission Valley answered back in the bottom of the first with Robbie Gauthier driving home Jack Humphreys. Humphreys got on base with a leadoff single, moved to second on a passed ball and reached third on a groundout.

“Jack is a great leadoff hitter,” Hanson said. “He’s not one to be overly aggressive and works deep into counts to walk a lot. We’ve had some great leadoff hitters for the Mariners and he fits in right along with them.”

Von Tom drove home Evertz in both the bottom of the fourth and sixth innings to give the Mariners the advantage they needed to win. He also had a great outfield play, throwing out a Glacier runner at home who was trying to score from third on a fly ball.

Jacob Young had a great game at the plate, going 2-for-3 with a double.

“Jacob has been hitting the ball on the nose,” Hanson said.

Molzhon also picked up a hit for the M’s in the game. In the second game, Molzhon scattered four Glacier hits while the offense hummed for the Mariners. Mission Valley notched 10 hits and scored 12 runs with Humphreys notching the walk-off hit to bring home Young and enact the 10-run rule in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Glacier took the early 1-0 lead, but Mission Valley answered back in the bottom of the first with an RBI by Zeke Webster-Yaqui and a two run-triple by Von Tom. Von Tom also scored on an error to round out a three-hit, four-run inning for the M’s off of two Twins’ errors.

Mission Valley plated two more runs thanks to two errors by the M’s in the bottom of the second to make it 6-1 heading into the top of the third. Glacier would notch a run in that frame, but committed an error in the bottom of the third to allow Evertz to score. Webster-Yaqui had an RBI as well and gave Mission Valley the 8-2 lead. Young drove home a run in the bottom of the fourth and in the bottom of the fifth, Gauthier and Chris Clary both had RBIs. Meanwhile, Molzhon took Glacier to town on the mound. He recorded a three-pitch top of the fifth and an eight-pitch top of the sixth. He would finish the game with 67 pitches and walked just one batter.

“It was phenomenal,” Hanson said. “That’s pretty darn good.”

Glacier finished the game with 10 errors in the game.

MARINERS BASEBALL CAMP

The Mariners had already been at O’Maley Park for several hours before they started their doubleheader against the Twins. Over 60 kids came to the ballpark to learn baseball from the Mission Valley players despite bone-chilling conditions.

“I want to thank all the campers and the parents that let their kids come to the camp,” Hanson said. “I also want to thank the Mariners players for putting on a nice camp, it was great to see them teaching the kids the game of baseball. They were running the camp and playing a doubleheader in really cold conditions.”

VS. KALISPELL LAKERS

The Mariners came back in their two games against the Kalispell Lakers and completed the weekend 4-0 thanks to some great batting by the Mission Valley players. In the first game, the Mariners bounced back from an early 4-1 deficit and used a 5-run rally in the fourth inning to get past the Lakers in a 9-6 victory.

“The kids are starting to believe and are expecting to win,” Hanson said. “I saw a lot of boosted confidence in the players and they found ways to get things done. You’re going to have games where things don’t go according to plan and they dealt with that well.”

Gauthier had a big game at the plate for the Mariners, going 2-for-4 with a double, triple and four RBIs. Clary, Evertz and Von Tom also drove in runs for Mission Valley. Kellen Hoyt pitched seven innings for the Mariners, holding Kalispell to just two runs after the first inning.

In the second game, Kalispell again jumped out to an early 3-1 lead and pushed that lead to 6-1 in the bottom of the fourth inning but Mission Valley’s bats couldn’t be silenced. The M’s scored three runs in the fifth and rallied for six in the seventh inning for the 10-8 victory.

Webster-Yaqui had a double into the left-center field gap and burned the outfielder with runners on second and third for the go-ahead run. Von Tom then shut down the Lakers in the bottom of the seventh for the victory.

Webster-Yaqui finished the game 3-for-5 with an RBI. Humphreys went 2-for-4 with an RBI while Mike Bournstein went 2-for-4 at the plate as well. Gauthier had two RBIs in the game and the M’s also got RBIs from Von Tom and Young.

COMING UP

The Mariners will host the Glacier Twins A team on Sunday and split a doubleheader with the B team. All mothers are invited to attend the Mother’s Day game and will be honored before the games.

“It’s been a tradition for years,” Hanson said.

MV 3, GLACIER 1

G - 100 - 000 - 0 - 1

M - 100 - 101 - x - 3

Glacier - 2 hits, 4 errors. MV - 6 hits, 0 errors

Mariners batting - Jack Humphreys 1-2, Zeke Webster-Yaqui 0-3, Robbie Gauthier 0-3, Chris Clary 0-2, Justin Evertz 0-2, Austin Von Tom 2-3, Jake Young 2-3, Bradley Pichler 0-2, Dalton Molzhon 1-2.

Doubles - Young. RBIs - Von Tom 2

M Pitching - Evertz (7 IP, 2 hits, 1 run)

MV 12, GLACIER 2

G - 101 - 000 - 0 - 2

M - 422 - 121 - x - 12

Glacier - 4 hits, 9 errors. MV - 12 hits, 2 errors

Mariners batting - Jack Humphreys 2-2, Zeke Webster-Yaqui 1-3, Robbie Gauthier 2-4, Chris Clary 1-2, Justin Evertz 2-3, Austin Von Tom 2-3, Jacob Young 1-4, Bradley Pichler 0-4, Dalton Molzhon 1-2.

Doubles - Humphreys. Triples - Von Tom. RBIs - Humphreys, Gauthier 2, Evertz, Von Tom 2, Young

M Pitching - Molzhon (6 IP, 2 runs, 5 hits)

MV 9, KALI. 6

M - 111 - 510 - 0 - 9

K - 401 - 010 - 0 - 6

MV - 10 hit, 3 errors. Kalispell - 7 hits, 4 errors

Mariners batting - Jack Humphreys 1-4, Zeke Webster-Yaqui 1-1, Robbie Gauthier 2-4, Chris Clary 1-3, Justin Evertz 1-2, Austin Von Tom 1-2, Jacob Young 2-4, Bradley Pichler 0-4, Dalton Molzhon 1-4, Kellen Hoyt 0-2.

Doubles - Gauthier, Molzhon. Triples - Gauthier. RBIs - Gauthier 4, Clary, Evertz, Von Tom

M Pitching - Webster-Yaqui (0 IP), Hoyt (7 IP)

MV 10, KALI. 8

M - 100 - 030 - 6 - 10

K - 211 - 220 - 0 - 8

MV - 12 hits, 3 errors. Kalispell - 9 hits, 5 errors

Mariners batting - Jack Humphreys 2-4, Zeke

Webster-Yaqui 3-5, Robbie Gauthier 1-4, Chris Clary 1-4, Justin Evertz 1-3, Austin Von Tom 1-3, Jacob Young 1-4, Mike Bournstein 2-4, Dalton Molzhon 0-1.

Doubles - Webster-Yaqui. Triples - Von Tom, Young.

RBIs - Humphreys, Webster-Yaqui, Gauthier 2, Von Tom, Young, Bournstein 2. M Pitching - Crawford (2 IP), Pichler (3 IP), Von Tom (2 IP)