No-hitter clinches tournament title for Hailey
Zachary, Nice toss Wood River shutouts on final day
Young baseball players everywhere dream of pitching a no-hitter. Throwing
a no-hitter in a championship game is almost too much to dream for.
Wood River American Legion pitcher Matt Zachary lived and breathed that
dream Saturday, leading his team to the championship of the Twin Falls
Invitational/Donnelley Sports tournament at Bruin Field.
Zachary, the lanky righthander planning to play college baseball in
Hawaii, handcuffed the Brigham City (Utah) Guardian Bees 10-0 in Saturday’s title
contest called on the run rule in the fifth.
He faced one batter over the minimum because the three Bees who reached
first on infield errors were promptly thrown out stealing by catcher Andy Beck. Zachary (7
Ks) walked one and threw 75 pitches. No Bees reached third.
Zachary (2-1, 2.45 ERA) baffled a brash Brigham City squad that had
steamrolled its four previous foes 63-18.
Throwing strikes and painting the corners, he frustrated the Utah batters,
who constantly complained about balls-and-strikes calls. The Bees third base coach was
ejected in the fourth inning.
Exercising his prerogative and having heard an earful from the Bees bench
and rooting section, the home plate umpire called the game on the 10-run rule when Jake
Nilsen singled home Riley Nash in the Wood River fifth.
It was a sweet finish, indeed, Wood River’s eighth consecutive win in
a sweet week.
Together with Tyler Nice’s four-hit shutout over Bear Lake Saturday
morning, it meant the red-hot Wood River nine finished the three-day, 10-team tournament
with a 5-0 record—allowing no runs in its last 14 innings of action.
For the tournament, Wood River permitted only 11 runs.
Coach Matt Nelson said, "We played well."
At the plate, on the basepaths, on defense and on the mound, Wood River
came to play in Saturday’s decisive games against Bear Lake and Brigham City. They
outhit the runner-up and third-place teams by a 20-4 margin.
Leading the way at the plate was second baseman Cory Goicoechea (8-for-16
tourney). His two-run homer in the third inning of the title game gave Zachary a 4-0
cushion.
In other games, Wood River slipped past Twin Falls 7-5, rallied past
Kimberly in the final at-bat 5-4 and outhit Caldwell 17-5 in a 12-2 win.
WR 10, Brigham City 0
Back-to-back doubles to left by Jeff Bolton and Andy Beck followed by
an RBI single by Matt Beck (3 hits) gave Wood River a 2-0 lead after two.
Goicoechea’s second homer of the tournament made it 4-0 in the
third and knocked out the Bees starting pitcher. Jake Upham greeted the reliever with a
two-out, two-run double to the left center field fence.
Wood River extended its lead to 9-0 and dispatched another Utah pitcher
to the showers in the fourth when James Cordes and Goicoechea (3 RBI) ripped singles
through the left side of the Bees infield.
WR 7, Bear Lake 0
Nice’s clutch pitching and excellent defense sparked Wood
River’s victory against a good Bear Lake team that, later Saturday, drubbed
Buhl’s Tribe 19-4 for third place.
Wood River hit well, too, against lefty Shad Romrell.
In the second inning, Cordes (2 hits) got Wood River on the scoreboard
with a bases-loaded, two-out, two-run single. On the play, Riley Nash scooted home from
third for a third run when the Bears loafed after a relay throw.
Max Paisley’s two-out RBI single made it 4-0 in the third. The
Wood River lead grew to 7-0 in the fourth with two unearned runs—featuring
Upham’s RBI single and a run-scoring grounder by Nice.
Nice struggled in the home fifth when the Bears put their #8 and #9
hitters aboard and filled the bases with one out. But Nice retired Romrell on an infield
pop-up, then Paisley made a great diving catch on a Bo Smith liner that had three-run
triple written all over it.
The crisis averted, Nice breezed in the final two innings. Goicoechea,
Zachary and Upham had two hits each.
WR 7, Twin Falls 5
Wood River wouldn’t have had Nice and Zachary fresh for the last
two games, if not for Matt Beck’s gritty complete-game victory over Twin Falls.
Beck (2-1) threw an eight-hitter and got tough in the home seventh,
when the Bruins filled the bases and put the winning run at first. Twin Falls didn’t
score as Beck enticed three infield outs.
Twin Falls led 3-1 after one inning, but Cordes’ two-run triple
tied it 3-3 in the second.
In the third, the Bruins threatened to extend their 4-3 lead when
pitcher/clean-up hitter Tyler Maxfield hit a long drive that Paisley misplayed near the
center field fence.
Paisley chased it down and heaved a relay back toward the infield.
Shortstop Cordes caught it barehanded, on one hop, on the outfield grass, and in the same
motion heaved a strike home. Catcher Kent Grimes blocked the plate and tagged out a
sliding Maxfield.
That pretty much deflated the Twin Falls offense.
Meantime Wood River (13 LOB, 9 scoring position) kept putting runners
aboard but struggled scoring them. Twin Falls pitchers walked 12 Hailey batters and hit
three. Five who drew free passes scored. And that was the difference.
Paisley (4 runs) led off with walks and scored in the fourth and
seventh. Goicoechea singled to open the sixth and scored on Upham’s sacrifice fly.
Wood River ended up with only six hits, two by Cordes.
But Beck’s determined pitching in the seventh assured Wood
River’s win.
WR 5, Kimberly 4
Although Kimberly played shorthanded, the Bulldogs nearly beat Wood
River for the fourth time in five meetings when they rallied from a 3-0 deficit and took a
4-3 lead in the visitor seventh.
Nice drilled a two-strike single up the middle to open the home
seventh. Paisley and Goicoechea drew walks to load the bases. Clean-up hitter Andy Beck
tied it 4-4 by drawing the third walk of the frame. With one out, Zachary delivered
Paisley with the winner on a grounder to second.
Matt Beck contributed a pair of RBI singles and Goicoechea belted a
long solo homer. The winner with one-and-two-thirds innings of one-hit relief was lefty
Riley Nash.
WR 12, Caldwell 2
Wood River bats (17 hits) were smoking in the tournament opener
Thursday.
They batted around with line drive after line drive and scored five
runs in the first.
Bolton (4-for-4, 4 RBI), Upham (3-for-4) and Nice (2 hits, 3 RBI)
provided big bats in the #6-#8 spots. Each starter hit safely, Cordes and Goicoechea
adding two hits.
On the hill, Zachary (8 Ks, 4 walks) struggled a little, bouncing back
from a bout of sickness. But he earned his first victory of the summer with a five-inning,
five-hitter—whiffing the final two batters with the bases loaded.
