For the week of August 8 - 14, 2001

Legion wins three at district, places third

Wood River falls short of state

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Friday was a memorable, red-letter day for the Wood River American Legion baseball team at the 2001 Area C "A" tourney in Pocatello.

Two shutout pitching efforts by Max Paisley and Ryne Reynoso and terrific team hitting (27 runs and 29 hits) turned into two big victories.

Unfortunately Wood River’s other three games were less successful at the 11-team meet. And coach Mike Chatterton’s squad settled for third place—just missing a state trip.

Wood River (30-13-1) fell to Marsh Falls (35-19) by a nail-biting score of 4-3 in Saturday’s playoff that determined which team would join three-time district champion Buhl (33-4) at the State "A" tourney starting today, Wednesday in Burley.

A strong hitting team, Wood River (.388 season) out-hit five opponents 56-25 and was the highest scoring team at district with 43 runs in five games. In its three district wins, Wood River didn’t make an error.

But Wood River, despite out-hitting Marsh Falls 10-5, stranded too many runners, made a couple of base-running mistakes and two errors in Saturday’s season-ending loss.

Still, graduating third-year players Max Paisley, Jake Upham, Cory Goicoechea and Riley Nash did a good job leading Wood River.

Coach Chatterton said, "The seniors stepped up at the end of the season and helped the team stay together. Our pitching was real good at district. We got what we needed."

Relying on many first-year Legion players, Wood River achieved much in the summer. The coach said, "The younger players did very well, actually holding the team together at one point of the season."

Among its achievements:

Hailey won three games at the district tournament, moving up a notch from its fourth seed, and brought home the Marsh Falls tournament championship July 1.

Wood River (9.2 runs per game offense, 5.6 defense) also posted only the third 30-win season in the local Legion program’s annals, all coming in the past four years when the program is 121-53-1 (.691).

The Wolverines of coaches Chatterton and Brian Nelson were 13-4-1 at home, 17-9 away from Hailey.

For more photos check this week’s Local Life section. Here’s a district recap:

 

WR 5, Jerome 4

Wednesday’s opener between #4-seeded Wood River and #5-seeded Jerome was a fine pitcher’s duel between first-year righty Reynoso (6-2) and Jerome’s Blake Thompson.

"Both pitchers were in control of the game," said coach Chatterton.

Thompson surrendered only five hits to Wood River’s powerful lineup. Reynoso limited the Tigers (17-24) to four hits—none in the first five frames. But Jerome scored four runs for a 4-2 lead in the sixth.

Wood River came right back, Nash plating the tying runs with a two-run double in the home sixth and Reynoso scoring the eventual winner on a wild pitch. Then, in the seventh, Reynoso retired the meat of the Tiger batting order 1-2-3 for the triumph.

 

Buhl 18, WR 8

District champion Buhl spotted Wood River a 3-0 first-inning lead and then poured it on, scoring five, five, four and four runs to finish up its run-rule triumph in five frames.

"Buhl was a big step above everybody else in the league," said Chatterton. "They’re so disciplined and play the game so well."

Scoring 36 runs in its three tournament games including a 10-2 title game victory over Marsh Falls Friday evening, Buhl out-hit Wood River by only a 13-12 margin—but Wood River committed five errors.

"Take our errors away and it’s a close game," Chatterton said.

But Wood River just couldn’t solve the Tribe all season, dropping all five of its meetings against defending State Legion champion Buhl and being outscored 62-21.

 

WR 12, Idaho Falls 0

Max Paisley hasn’t pitched much in his baseball career, logging most of his time as catcher and center fielder.

With Hailey hurting for pitching and facing a long haul in the loser bracket, Paisley went to coach Chatterton and asked for the pitching assignment against Cinderella team Idaho Falls Friday.

Paisley (3-1) did a great job. He tossed a five-inning, two-hit shutout at a surprising #10-seeded Idaho Falls squad that had won three games.

On offense, Wood River took advantage of five Rangers errors to score seven unearned runs. Hailey blew it open with a seven-run third, Reynoso leading off with a homer.

Run-scoring hits by Paisley and Jake Upham (triple) kept the rally going, while Paul Tinker (3 hits, 2 RBI) and Kellen Chatterton drilled two-out hits and scored on errors.

Goicoechea and Matt Conover added two hits and scored twice each.

 

WR 15, Bear Lake 0

Wood River exacted punishing revenge against a #3-seeded Bear Lake squad that had pinned a tough 10-9 loss on Hailey in the opening game of the State A-2 baseball tournament May 17 in Oregon.

Reynoso was in complete command, throwing a one-hitter and facing just one batter over the minimum for five frames. He retired the first seven Bears, allowed an infield single and then started a 1-6-3 double play. He walked two.

It was a quick 74-minute ouster, Reynoso needing only 60 pitches.

At the plate, Wood River (17 hits) pounded Bear Lake with clusters of aggressive, first-pitch hits and forced the Bears into six errors. The big dagger was an 11-hit, 12-hit fourth, Hailey sending up 16 hitters.

The top of Wood River’s batting order went 9-for-12—Paisley going 4-for-4 with 3 RBI, Upham 2-for-4 with 2 RBI and Goicoechea 3-for-4.

Reynoso and Nash each had two hits and scored twice. Kellen Chatterton and Conover drove home two runs apiece. "Our seniors went 12-for-15," coach Chatterton said.

 

Marsh Falls 4, WR 3

Following Paisley’s example, lefty Nash showed moxie by asking for the ball in Saturday’s state playoff against #2-seeded Marsh Falls.

And Nash (1-2) did a fine job in his final game, throwing six innings of five-hit ball.

But the difference was Caleb Call of Marsh Falls—plus a pair of costly Wood River errors in the field and two base-running mistakes.

Not only did winning pitcher Call battle his way out of a bunch of jams, he provided all of the Eagles’ offense with a two-run double in the first and two-run homer in the third.

Trailing 4-1, Wood River mustered its final threat in the sixth. Singles by Tinker, Conover and Reynoso, followed by a two-run triple by Max Paisley made it 4-3. But Call got the final four outs for the win.

Coach Chatterton said, "There were a lot of little things that happened in the game that made a big difference, including two base-running mistakes when we had runners on base and nobody out."

Goicoechea paced the 10-hit Wood River attack with three safeties and Conover added two hits.

Marsh Falls, which won the Area C "A" district tourney four times in five years from 1994-98 before Buhl’s current three-year reign, advanced to this week’s state tourney along with Buhl and host Burley.

LEGION NOTES—Left fielder Nash and shortstop Goicoechea had a scary collision chasing a wind-blown pop fly in short left field during Thursday’s game against Buhl. Nash got the worst of it, but was able to return and play some of his best baseball.

Wood River sealed its fifth consecutive winning season—26-16 in 1997, 30-14 in 1998, 24-11 in 1999, 37-15 in 2000 and 30-13-1 in 2001. The program has only had four other winning seasons since it debuted in 1975—26-14 in 1978, 18-13 in 1991, 28-16-3 in 1993 and 29-9 in 1994.

Although Wood River enjoyed an outstanding campaign, it struggled against the top teams—going 0-5 against Buhl, 1-2 against Marsh Falls and 1-2 against Bear Lake….Wood River was 10-4 in tournament games and 3-2 in one-run decisions. Ten times, Wood River run-ruled its foes.

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