For the week of April 24 - 30, 2002

Baseball team rallies past Tribe 6-5

Eight straight wins for Wolverines (12-4)

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Just about everything that can happen on a baseball diamond has happened when the Wood River Wolverines and Buhl Tribe have clashed over the years in a rivalry that is considered one of Idaho’s best.

Ryne Reynoso’s two-out RBI triple brought home Drew Detwiler in the home sixth and cut Buhl’s lead to 5-4. Express photo by Willy Cook

Saturday, it was a wild pitch rolling into the Tribe dugout that handed Wood River a 6-5 victory.

Actually it was a Buhl wild pitch after a clutch two-run rally by the host Wolverines in a dandy Sawtooth Central Idaho Conference pitcher’s duel at Hailey’s Founders Field.

Staked to a 5-3 lead and four outs away from a huge league victory, Buhl righthander Tim Bourner was pitching an excellent game—giving up only one earned run in six frames and stranding seven Hailey runners.

Wood River shortstop Drew Detwiler (3 hits) kept the Hailey hopes alive with a two-out single in the sixth. Then right fielder Ryne Reynoso (2 hits) tripled Detwiler home trimming Buhl’s lead to 5-4.

Senior righty Matt Beck (5-1 this season, 10-3 two years), who held Buhl hitless after a four-run Buhl uprising in the fifth, retired the Tribe in the seventh. Beck finished with a six-hitter, walking nobody, and enticing 12 fly ball or pop outs.

Fanned twice by Bourner earlier in the game, clean-up hitter Nic Nottingham pounded an 0-2 delivery to the center field fence for a huge leadoff triple in the seventh. Catcher Kellen Chatterton promptly delivered Nottingham with a sacrifice fly.

It looked like extra innings, but it’s never over until it’s over in baseball. Center fielder Joe Molyneux drew a two-out walk—Bourner’s first free pass of the game. Matt Conover ran for Molyneux and stole second.

Nic Nottingham turns on the afterburners rolling into third after belting a seventh-inning leadoff triple to the center field fence. He scored the tying run on Kellen Chatterton’s sacrifice fly. Express photo by Willy Cook

Third baseman Evan Peebles (2 hits), a reliable contact hitter, battled Bourner and fouled off two pitches and hung tough with two strikes—Conover antsy to score from second.

Bourner tried to get Peebles to chase a low delivery but the ball bounced away from Tribe catcher J.D. Gould and rolled toward the Buhl dugout. Gould gave it his best, chasing the ball and preventing it from rolling directly into the dugout.

But Gould’s momentum carried him into the dugout and the umpire ruled the ball dead. It allowed Conover to score the winning run and avenge Buhl’s 24-16 district championship triumph on the same Founders Field diamond last May 9.

Wood River’s defense was virtually airtight and the home team out-hit Buhl 10-6, however the outcome was truly in doubt until the final pitch. Molyneux and Tyler Corrock added RBI hits for Hailey.

In the non-league nightcap the Wolverines completed the twinbill sweep 12-3 as Reynoso (4-1) earned the win with two innings of scoreless relief. Detwiler and Jeff Hunter shared the first five innings of work.

Not only was it another solid outing for Wood River’s defense, commiting only one harmless error like the opener, but the Wolverines in out-hitting Buhl 13-9 got hits from 11 players and nine scored runs.

But the outcome wasn’t settled until Wood River, clinging to a 4-3 lead, put an eight-spot on the scoreboard in the home sixth.

Conover’s two-run single made it 6-3 and a first-pitch, three-run homer ripped down the right field line by southpaw swinger Reynoso quickly changed the score to 9-3. Nottingham showed his power with a back-to-back homer over the left field fence.

Beck’s two-run double boosted Hailey’s lead to 12-3 and Reynoso struck out the side in the seventh. Reynoso (3 hits, 4 RBI) finished the day with five hits in eight trips.

Wood River (12-4 overall, 4-0 home, 3-0 league) thus took the early initiative in its quest for the school’s seventh SCIC regular-season championship in 11 years. They’ll have to win at Buhl (9-4, 2-1) on May 4 to nail down the league top seed.

The winning streak reached eight games for Wood River. More importantly it was a watershed week for 11th-year coach Lars Hovey, who finally climbed over the hump with a career 147-145 (.503) record.

On the flip side, Wood River may have lost senior pitcher and line drive hitter Jeff Bolton for the rest of the season. Last week Bolton was diagnosed with a rotator cuff injury that may require surgery.

Coming up: Wood River entertains Filer (4-8, 1-2 SCIC) Thursday, April 25 at Founders Field for a league doubleheader and also for the completion of the April 5 game which was suspended with the Wolverines leading 12-8 after four.

The Middleton Vikings arrive Saturday, April 27 for an afternoon twinbill. Middleton ousted Wood River 5-4 at last year’s state tournament. Next Tuesday Kimberly comes to Founders Field for a pair.

 

Sweep at Kimberly

In contrast to Saturday’s sunny, spring weather for the Buhl twinbill, last Tuesday’s SCIC doubleheader at Kimberly was cold and windy. But the results were the same, a sweep.

Wood River won 16-1 and 6-2 with a pair of strong pitching efforts by Reynoso and Beck. Kimberly fell to 5-11-1 on the season, 0-3 league.

Reynoso was overpowering in the first league game. He tossed a five-inning one-hitter with seven strikeouts in the run-rule game. Reynoso allowed only a first-inning two-out single by Matt Bulcher.

Wood River benefited from 11 hits and 11 walks in plating 16 runs. Two-run doubles by Nottingham (2 hits) and Bolton (2 hits) were the big blows of an eight-run second. Paul Tinker added two hits while Molyneux (3 runs) walked four times.

In the nightcap, Beck (7 Ks) was nearly as good with a four-hitter. Wood River grabbed a 4-1 lead with a three-run third—a single by Chatterton, double by Nottingham and two errors doing the damage.

Nottingham, Peebles and Conover each finished with two hits as Hailey out-hit Kimberly 21-5 for the day.

 

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