Mission Valley Mariners end season at District play

Mission Valley Mariners’ manager Kalieb Gillingham saw a significant amount of growth in himself and his young team as they ended their season with two losses to the Glacier Twins and Bitterroot Red Sox in District play at Whitefish.

In the loser’s bracket, the Mariners defeated Missoula 2-0 and earned their last victory of an American Legion season that lasted over 50 games.

The M’s entered the tournament as the No. 7 seed and had to play three of the top teams in District play.

Gillingham said he is “proud” of the way his team played against top-notch competition.

“All of these teams that we played in District were the top-three teams,” Gillingham said. “Going into the tournament with a No. 7 seed was pretty impressive. I am happy that we even won a game.”

Gillingham said the loss against Glacier was the only game that his team “struggled” in.

“We started out a little rough and had too many errors in the second game,” Gillingham said. “We were able to fix that moving forward. Even though we didn’t score many runs, I was really happy with the end of the third game. The Sox just put the ball where we weren’t. hat kind of stuff happens. That is just baseball and that is why you play the game. We made several adjustments after the first game and really cut down on the errors.”

The Mariners will lose only two players from this year’s team: Jacob Harrod and Karsen Kreb. Several players on the M’s roster will be back next season. The Mariners had a total of seven kids move up from the B team to play on the A team. Gillingham said his team’s experience will be “significant.”

“With seven kids getting the experience on the A team at 14 or 15 years old, they are going to have one more year to mature physically and mentally, and come back next season focused and ready to go,” Gillingham said. “Hopefully, we will have everyone come back this year.”

During District play, the M’s struggled with the problems they had dealt with all season.

“The same thing happened from the beginning of the season,” Gillingham said. “We were hitting the ball and it was going right to everyone. It is hard to produce runs when you are hitting the ball right at people.”

Despite the struggle, Gillingham saw “significant improvement” in his team’s attitude throughout the season.

“From the beginning of the season, we did a lot better,” Gillingham said. “We had kids showing up to practice and invested in practice. Any team that shows up and works hard is going to get better throughout the season. The team all responded very well and put in a really good effort. They did what I asked them to do and all worked hard at practices. They just stayed committed to trying to get better.”

Gillingham, who replaced Jami Hanson, who coached for 17 seasons with the M’s, said he grew a lot in his first year as a manager.

“I feel like I grew quite a bit and learned a lot more about the game,” Gillingham said. “I was able to get my voice where it could be heard. That was my biggest issue because my voice was never really a loud or carrying voice, and that was one of my biggest downfalls that I had to work on the most.”

At the end of the season, Gillingham said he improved significantly as a manager.

“I learned about the stuff that goes on behind the practices,” Gillingham said. “I learned about scheduling, getting kids where they needed to go and giving them rides home after practices. I felt like I handled all the added responsibilities very well.”

Gillingham also expounded towards the end of the season he began coming into his own as a manager.

“I felt like I really came into my own towards the end of the season,” Gillingham said. “I started to get a lot louder. I started defending my team more by arguing with umpires and showing the team that I am still fighting for them. They were able to trust in me when I was able to do that.”

Western District A

American Legion Baseball Tournament

At Memorial Field, Whitefish, MT

July 20-23, 2017

Bitterroot Red Sox 11, MV Mariners 1

The Mariner lone run came when bottom-of-the-order batter Brendon Blood reached base on a mishandled third strike, stretching that advantage into scoring position at second base while the catcher was trying to secure the ball. Leadoff Karsen Krebs then knocked him in to pare down the deficit within two runs 3-1 before the top-seeded ‘Root Sox added further to their advantage. MV Mariners (15-38)

Mission Valley 001 00 – 1 1 1

Bitterroot Sox 301 24 – 11 11 0

Tyson Petticrew, Bryant Hales (3), Izyk Gillingham (4) and Gillingham, Corbin Davis (7).

Mariners – Karsen Krebs 1-2(BB), Gillingham 0-2, Petticrew 0-2, Jacob Harrod 0-2, Davis 0-2, Hales 0-1(BB), Tyler Kelsch 0-2, Dylan Wisniewski 0-1(BB), Brendon Blood 0-2(D3K,R). RBI – Krebs.

(Sa22Jul17gm9)

MV Mariners 2, Missoula A Mavs 0

7th-seed Mariners eliminated the 3rd-seed Mavs

Mission Valley 010 100 0 – 2 10 0

Missoula Mavs 000 000 0 – 0 2 1

Jacob Harrod, Tyson Pettigrew (5) and Izyk Gillingham.

Mariners – Karsen Krebs 2-4, Gillingham 2-4, Petticrew 1-3, Harrod 1-4, Corbin Davis 1-3, Bryant Hales 0-2(BB), Tyler Kelsch 0-3, Daniel Wisniewski 2-2(SacF), Brendon Blood 1-3

2B – Gillingham. SacF – Wisniewski. RBI – Davis, Wisniewski. SB – Davis.

(Fr21Jul18gm6)

Glacier Twins 13, MV Mariners 3

Mission Valley 000 012 – 3 4 7

Glacier Twins 071 104 – 13 13 2

James Bennett, Xavier Fisher (3) and Izyk Gillingham. Ryan Veneman, Nathan Hader (7) and Tyler Murphy.

WP – Ryan Veneman haber and murghy; LP—Xavier Fisher.

MISSION VALLEY MARINERS – Karsen Krebs 1-1, Izyk Gillingham 0-2, Tyson Petticrew 1-3, Jacob Harrod 0-3, Corbin Davis 1-3, Bryant Hales 0-1, Tyler Kelsch 1-2, Gabe Mergenthaler 0-2, Eric Dolence 0-1, Brendon Blood 0-2.

GLACIER TWINS – Greyson Bistodeau 0-4, Tom Hellwig 1-3, Veneman 2-5, Coby Clark-Dickenson 2-4, Derek Kastella 0-2, Hader 1-1, Jack Schwaiger 0-1, Murphy 1-3, Dan Seymour 0-3, Gunner Marsh 3-4, Terek Bistodeau 3-4.

2B – Clark-Dickenson, Veneman. RBIs – Petticrew, Hales, Kelsch; G.Bistodeau, Hellwig 3, Veneman 2, Clark-Dickenson 2, Murphy, Marsh, T.Bistodeau. (Th20Jul17gm4)

Championship

Bitterroot Red Sox 3, Kalispell Lakers 0

Bitterroot Red Sox 10, Bitterroot Bucs 0 lo

Kalispell Lakers 13, Bitterroot Bucs 12

Twins 16, Bandits 6 lo

Red Sox 8, Twins 2 lo

Game 9

Cranbrook Bandits 10, Libby Loggers 8 (10) lo

Bitterroot Bucs 4, Bitterroot Red Sox 2 (9)

Game 4

Kalispell A Lakers 9, Missoula A Mavs 6

Bitterroot Bucs 16, Libby Loggers 6

Bitterroot Red Sox 8, Cranbrook Bandits 2

Game 6

Kalispell Lakers 5, Glacier Twins 4

Mavs & Sox stat specs courtesy of Western District chairman Wayne Raymond.