Mariners season ends early

EUREKA — The Mission Valley Mariners’ season came to a sooner-than-expected end on Sunday afternoon with a 7-6 loss to the Bitterroot Bucs in the Western A American Legion baseball district tournament.

“I’m still stunned,” said M’s manager Jami Hanson. “I guess every time we step on the field I expect for us to win because that’s been Mariner tradition.”

Mariners starter Nick Crawford left the game in the second inning with muscle discomfort in his chest.

“It’s not worth it,” Hanson said. “The kid’s going on to play [at Columbia Basin College next year]. He didn’t want to come out but I didn’t want to allow him to throw.”

Chris Drebes came in and kept the Mariners in the game, allowing four runs over 5 1/3 innings, but some late errors cost Mission Valley the contest and Drebes a chance at the win.

“We had a couple mistakes late in the ballgame that cost us some runs,” said Hanson. “It’s just how baseball happens.”

Top seed Mission Valley posted a 2-2 record in the tournament, the other loss coming at the hands of fourth-seeded Libby, 8-7, on Friday evening.

“We hit a lot of fly balls and they made all the routine plays,” Hanson said. “We didn’t hit the ball real well. Then we turned around and hit the crap out of the ball against Kalispell.”

They beat the Lakers 15-0 after falling into the losers bracket. They also opened the tournament with a solid 5-2 victory over the host Kootenai Valley Rangers.

The early exit comes just a year removed from an American Legion regional championship. That team lost seven seniors; this year’s version of the Mariners returned only one starter—center fielder Zeke Webster-Yaqui.

Despite the young team, Mission Valley finished 51-20 on the season and strung together multiple double-digit winning streaks.

“That’s not a bad season any way you look at it,” Hanson said. “The kids stepped up. We had a couple spells when things weren’t looking good and the kids just came out and started playing. They really came into themselves.”

Hanson’s team only loses two seniors from this year’s team; Crawford and first baseman Jeremiah Crawford will be too old to play American Legion ball next year.

“Those are two kids that are tough to replace,” Hanson said.

Though he spoke highly of his team’s effort, Hanson still asserted that his team should not be hanging up their cleats this early in the postseason.

“I hope none of them felt like the season should be done,” he said. “They know deep down that they should be in that state contention. But I will never take anything away from this squad because they did well.”