Rockies down Loggers in tourney
<p>Damian Mathis makes contact with the ball.</p>
LIBBY — The bats came alive for the Mission Valley Rockies in their 14-6 victory over the Libby Loggers last Saturday at the Woodbat Classic. They also played their nemesis, the three-time defending state champion Missoula Pioneers, and again pushed them to the limit before falling.
LIBBY — The bats came alive for the Mission Valley Rockies in their 14-6 victory over the Libby Loggers last Saturday at the Woodbat Classic. They also played their nemesis, the three-time defending state champion Missoula Pioneers, and again pushed them to the limit before falling.
“I’m really proud of these guys,” manager Alan Anderson said. “They played darn good ball and it’s just getting better and better.”
Mission Valley finished with a 1-3 record at the tournament and look to pick up wins this weekend over at the Senior Babe Ruth competition.
At the Woodbat Classic, Mission Valley started the tournament off against the Pioneers on Saturday. Statistically, the Rockies outplayed the Pioneers, outhitting them 12-6, but Missoula scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh to win 5-4.
“We just couldn’t hang on in the end despite leading 4-3 in the bottom of the seventh,” Anderson said. “We were fine defensively and pitchingwise, we just didn’t get the timely hit when we needed it. If any Senior Babe Ruth team can beat the Pioneers, it’s going to be us. It was such a back-and-forth game.”
Missoula had a 3-1 lead after three innings, but Mission Valley rallied for two runs in the top of the fifth and one run in the sixth. The Pioneers were just able to come through in the end.
Nick Grogan, Eric Milner and Jeremiah Crawford all had multi-hit games for the Rockies. Crawford drove in two runs, while Damian Mathis and Grogan each had an RBI. On the mound, Chris Geiber and Mathis both struck out five batters.
In their second game, Mission Valley shook off their defeat at the hands of the Pioneers and trounced Libby 14-6.
“I was proud of the boys because it was kind of a letdown losing to Missoula in the seventh, but they came back even better,” Anderson said.
Mission Valley scored in nearly every inning against Libby and collected 13 hits against the Loggers.
The Rockies started things with a 3-0 lead in the top of the third but the Loggers came alive for five runs in the bottom of the stanza.
That’s when Mission Valley’s offense really exploded with four runs in the fourth and four in the fifth. They added three in the sixth before the game was called because of time constraints.
Milner was a star at the plate in the game for Mission Valley, going 2-for-4 with a double, a triple and four RBIs. Crawford went 2-for-4 with a double and three RBIs. Grogan and Woodward also had multi-hit games for the Rockies while Warren Wood went 3-for-4 with an RBI and Krebes also drove in a run.
Ryan Anderson went 1-for-2 with two RBIs as well. On the mound, Crawford went three innings and struck out four before Davin Sorrell came in and pitched the remaining three innings, allowing just one run and striking out three.
“He threw really well,” Anderson said. “He came and shut them down when we needed it.”
All in all, seven different Rockies players had hits in the game and there were four extra-base hits overall.
“Overall, I saw a lot of good pitching, hitting, defense and baserunning,” Anderson said. “We just need to keep this up and be consistent. I was really proud of them, I was afraid they might come out flat against Libby but they didn’t do that.”
In their first game on Sunday morning, Calgary defeated them 11-4 en route to a 4-0 tournament record.
“Hats off to them, they had a pretty good team,” Anderson said. “They ended up beating the Pioneers 5-0.”
While Mission Valley’s bats came alive late — three runs in the top of the sixth — the Rockies couldn’t quite overcome the deficit. However, four different players had multi-hit games.
Sorrell went 2-for-3 with a double, while Geiber was 2-for-3 with two RBIs and Ruleson was 2-for-3 with an RBI as well. Milner was 2-for-2.
Geiber, Turner, Ruleson and Krebes combined to pitch for the Rockies.
In their final game of the tournament, they ran into a strong Kootenai Valley team and fell 10-0. The bats went quiet in the defeat with Turner and Crawford getting the Rockies’ two hits.
Kootenai Valley scored four runs in the first inning and three more in the top of the third en route to their win. Despite the final game, Anderson was really happy about the last weekend.
“The best thing about the weekend was our attitude,” Anderson said. “We had a lot of people come up to us and compliment us on our sportsmanship. We still never got down and kept playing ball. We kept our heads in it.”
Mission Valley is still missing a few players to other sports and work, and the team will return to full strength as the season goes on.
“We just have to get more consistent,” Anderson said. “We have got some good players and hitters, we just have to keep ourselves going.”
Mission Valley will host the Great Falls Hawks on Saturday at 1 p.m. in St. Ignatius. Then they’ll travel to Stevensville to play Florence and Darby.
MISSOULA 5, MV R 4
MV - 010 - 021 - 0 - 4
M - 003 - 000 - 2 - 5
MV - 12 hits. Missoula - 6 hits
Rockies batting - Nick Grogan 2-4, Eric Milner 2-2, Ryan Turner 1-2, Jeremiah Crawford 3-4, Ryan Anderson 0-2, Bransen Krebes 0-1, Chris Geiber 1-4, James Ruleson 1-2, Davin Sorrell 1-3, Damian Mathis 1-3. RBIs - Grogran, Crawford 2, Mathis R Pitching - Chris Geiber (3IP, 5K), James Ruleson (3IP, 5K), Jeremiah Crawford (1IP)
CALGARY 11, MV R 4
MV - 000 - 103 - 4
C - 140 - 222 - 11
MV - 9 hits. Calgary - 18 hits.
Rockies batting - Nick Grogan 0-1, Warren Wood 1-3, Davin Sorrell 2-3, Eric Milner 2-2, Jeremiah Crawford 0-3, Chris Geiber 2-3, Ryan Anderson 0-1, Keith Woodward 0-2, Ryan Turner 0-1, James Ruleson 2-3, Damian Mathis 0-1, Bransen Krebes 0-1. 2B - Sorrell. RBI - Geiber 2, Ruleson.
R Pitching - Chris Geiber (1 2/3 IP, 1K), Ryan Turner (3 IP, 1K), James Ruleson (2 IP, 1K), Bransen Krebes (2/3 IP, 2K)
MV R 14, LIBBY 6
MV - 012 - 443 - 14
L - 005 - 010 - 6
MV - 13 hits. Libby - 10 hits.
Rockies batting - Nick Grogan 2-3, Keith Woodward 2-3, Eric Milner 2-4, Jeremiah Crawford 2-4, Chris Geiber 0-2, Davin Sorrell 0-1, Ryan Anderson 1-2, Ryan Turner 0-1, James Ruleson 0-2, Warren Wood 3-4, Bransen Krebes 1-3, Damian Mathis 0-1. 2B - Milner, Crawford, Anderson. 3B - Milner. RBI - Grogan, Milner 4, Crawford 3, Anderson 2, Wood, Krebes R Pitching - OJeremiah Crawford (3IP, 4K), Davin Sorrell (3IP, 3K)
KV 10, MV R 0
KV - 403 - 12 - 10
MV - 000 - 00 - 0
KV - 11 hits. MV - 2 hits
Rockies batting - Nick Grogan 0-1, Ryan Turner 1-2, Warren Wood 0-3, James Rulison 0-2, Eric Milner 0-3, Jeremiah Crawford 1-1, Chris Geiber 0-1, Ryan Anderson 0-1, Keith Woodward 0-2, Damian Mathis 0-2.
R Pitching - Jeremiah Crawford (1IP, 1K), Eric Milner
(3IP, 4K), David Sorrell (1 IP, 1K)