Beck's five-hitter for Wood River forces a deciding game
Wolverines, Tribe will battle for SCIC title today at
Founders Field
Lanky junior righthander Matt Beck picked a great time to
pitch the best game of his high school baseball career for the Wood River
High School Wolverines.
With great control, a nasty forkball and plenty of
movement on his fastball, Beck (4-2) threw a strong five-hitter at the
powerful Buhl Tribe and gave Wood River a chance to play another day with
a 7-2 victory at Buhl's Clint Faux Field. Wood River's five-run second
inning capped by Jake Upham's three-run homer were all the runs Beck
needed.
It was a huge win for coach Lars Hovey's Wolverines,
because Beck's 102-pitch complete game swung the momentum and the home
field advantage back to top-seeded Wood River. The Wolverines will get a
chance for a rare "threepeat" today, Wednesday at 5 p.m. when
they entertain the Tribe at Hailey's Founders Field in the deciding game
of the Sawtooth Central Idaho Conference tournament. Wood River has won
the SCIC tournament and its automatic state tournament berth for two
consecutive years, by a 14-13 score over Buhl in 1999 at Founders Field
and by a 4-1 score at Clint Faux Field last May.
Wood River (20-7), earning a 20-win spring season for the
second straight year, will be seeking its third consecutive state
tournament berth with a victory. Buhl (22-4) is likely to send its ace
righthander Seth Mathews to the mound today as coach Gary Krumm's Tribe
seeks its first district title since 1996.
The winner of today's game secures a ticket to the State
A-2 tournament May 17 at Treasure Valley Community College in Ontario,
Ore. The loser of today's game advances to an intra-district do-or-die
playoff game Saturday, May 12 at 1 p.m. at Mountain Home against the Third
District runner-up team, which would be Middleton, Payette or Weiser.
Although Beck won Wood River's SCIC tournament opener 15-2
over Filer on Friday, Beck hadn't been given the ball for many of the big
Wolverine games this season. Having been forced to play four and possibly
five games in six days because of the team's 8-6 home loss to Buhl and
Mathews Saturday, Hovey needed all the pitching depth he could summon, and
he picked Beck to pitch the biggest game of Wood River's season Tuesday.
Hovey said, "We were looking for Matt to get us
through four innings and get through the heart of their lineup twice, then
we could bring someone else in to show Buhl something different. But Matt
looked so good, with the exception of one Buhl batter, Jeff Walker, that
we stuck with him. And he did great, holding his composure when the strike
zone seemed to get a little smaller near the end of the game."
Beck noticed in warm-ups and early in the game that his
fastball seemed to be tailing inside to righthanded batters--and eight of
nine Buhl batters are righthanders. His catcher, sophomore Kellen
Chatterton, said after the game, "Matt's fork ball was working well
and his fast ball had a lot of movement."
Jeff Walker, Buhl's starting pitcher and its #2 batter,
homered to right field in his first two at-bats. Otherwise Beck was in
control, enticing 11 ground ball outs and benefiting from two double
plays, the second from shortstop Cory Goicoechea (6 assists, 2 putouts) to
second baseman Nic Nottingham to first baseman Jeff Bolton ending the
game. Beck walked five Tribe batters, but none of them scored.
"It was a good solid game. We had one big inning, and
luckily it was enough," said Hovey.
The big inning came in the second. Designated hitter Ryne
Reynoso (2 hits) ripped a leadoff single to right and left fielder Joe
Molyneux drilled a 1-2 Walker pitch to the right center field fence for an
RBI double. With two outs, Chatterton, who has reached base 10 of 11 times
in the last three games, drew one of his three walks of the game. It was a
huge walk. The next batter, Max Paisley (2 hits), pulled an RBI single to
left field for a 2-1 Wood River lead. The Hailey squad never trailed again
because Upham, who has reached base 11 of 13 times in the last three games
including three hits yesterday, pounded a three-run homer over the right
field fence for a 5-1 Wolverine cushion.
The rest of the game was all Beck and his defense. Buhl's
batting strength, its first through fifth batters, went a combined
2-for-15, and those two hits were Walker's solo homers which accounted for
all of Buhl's scoring. Beck's tailing fastball and forkball sawed off the
Tribe sluggers all day. In the fifth inning with two outs and Buhl's T.J.
Cline at first base with a walk, Beck went to work on Buhl clean-up hitter
Sean Van Elderen. On a 3-2 count with Cline at second, Beck threw what he
called his best pitch of the game to Van Elderen, a forkball that twisted
the big guy out of there, swinging, on the corner.
Wood River outhit Buhl 10-5.
A quick game at one hour and 50 minutes, Tuesday's contest
was a tidy defensive affair. But things could change quickly today at
Founders Field.
"Who knows what will happen tomorrow?" Hovey
said after the game. "It might take 20 runs to win it."
