Youth movement pays
dividends for Legion
Wood River rallies
past Eagles 6-5 in eight innings
The youth
movement paid off in a big way for the Wood River American Legion baseball
team in the final game of the Wood River Invitational wood bat tournament
Sunday at Founders Field in Hailey.
First-year
players Dylan McIlhenny and Kellen Kinghorn delivered clutch two-out hits
in a three-run Wood River sixth inning and the home team went on to beat
Marsh Falls 6-5 in eight innings.
The winning
pitcher with four innings of shutout and no-hit relief was righthanded ace
Ryne Reynoso (2-1), who also pitched Wood River to a tournament-opening
7-2 win over Blackfoot Friday afternoon.
Wood River
and Marsh Falls both entered the final game of the three-day, five-team
round-robin tourney with 3-0 records, meaning bragging rights for the
tournament championship were on the line.
The teams
also had some history.
Marsh Falls
was comprised of players from American Falls, a team that eliminated Wood
River from the State 3A baseball tournament three weeks ago. And Marsh
Falls ousted Wood River from the 2001 Area C "A" Legion district
tournament with a 4-3 win last August in Pocatello.
So Wood
River’s dramatic extra-inning victory which extended the Hailey squad’s
winning streak to five games exacted some sweet revenge on coach Jim
Chandler’s Eagles.
They’ll
see each other again—possibly at the Marsh Falls tournament June 28-30
in American Falls and again when Wood River visits American Falls for two
league games against the Eagles July 19.
6-5 championship
game triumph
Marsh Falls
won its first three games of last weekend’s tourney—beating Salmon
8-4, Kimberly 8-2 and Blackfoot 8-1. After beating Blackfoot, Wood River
downed Salmon 6-3 and Kimberly 13-4.
The
pitching staffs were pretty well exhausted by Sunday afternoon, so Wood
River sent Kellen Chatterton to the mound. Normally the team’s catcher,
Chatterton did a good job for coach Hovey and carried a 2-1 lead into the
fourth inning.
Marsh Falls
got singles from its 6-7-8 batters and a two-run double by leadoff hitter
Tony Brulotte. Things looked awfully bad for Wood River when Morgan
Colonel, bound for Treasure Valley Community College, hit a bouncer back
to the box.
Chatterton
gloved the ball and showed great instincts by hanging baserunner Brulotte
out to dry with a pickle-starting throw to second. Then, after applying
the tag, third baseman Paul Tinker noticed Colonel straying off first
base. He made a quick throw and Colonel got hung up as well.
Double
play.
In a flash,
Wood River went from no outs, a runner on second and a 5-2 deficit, to two
outs and nobody on. Chatterton whiffed the next batter to end the Eagles
rally. Marsh Falls never got another runner past second.
Breathing a
sigh of relief, coach Hovey decided that Chatterton’s successful
pitching stint was done and he summoned Reynoso when the Eagles came to
bat in the fifth.
Right
fielder McIlhenny made a fine running catch for the first out and Reynoso
was on his way. In four innings, Reynoso allowed no hits, struck out six
and walked only two.
The
question was, could Wood River score off of Marsh Falls righty sidearm
pitcher Nick Adamson? Adamson enticed ground balls from Wood River’s
1-2-3 batters and carried a 5-2 lead into the home sixth.
Leadoff
batter Reynoso (2 hits) beat out an infield hit in the sixth. With one
out, Joe Paisley hit a grounder to Adamson in the box. Marsh Falls nearly
turned a 1-6-3 double play, but Paisley beat the throw to first to keep
the inning alive.
McIlhenny
(2 hits) stroked his second straight single to right field. Stepping to
the plate was Kinghorn, a sophomore with precious little playing time at
the varsity level. Kinghorn (2 hits) drilled a long fly ball that carried
over the right fielder’s head for a two-run triple.
Still
trailing 5-4, Wood River needed another hit and got it from Chatterton,
who brought Kinghorn home for a 5-5 tie with an RBI single.
Marsh Falls
and Wood River both threatened but couldn’t score in the seventh, then
Reynoso retired the Eagles 1-2-3 in the eighth.
Another
two-out rally gave Wood River (out-hitting Marsh Falls 12-6) the victory
in the home eighth.
Chatterton
(2 hits) ripped a grounder that took a bad hop and bounced off the third
baseman’s chest for an infield single. Leadoff batter Drew Detwiler was
hit by a pitch. Steve Durkin drew an extremely important walk on a 3-2
pitch.
Tinker (3
hits) stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and delivered a
game-winning ground ball single up the middle. Steve Hansen, pinch running
for Chatterton, trotted home from third with the winning run.
There was
considerably less drama in Wood River’s other three wins.
Friday,
Reynoso (9 Ks) was in command the whole way with a 124-pitch effort in the
7-2 complete-game win over Blackfoot—his first win of the young Legion
campaign.
He
struggled a little with control, walking seven, but Reynoso held the
Broncos scoreless for the first six frames before giving up a couple of
meaningless runs in the seventh.
An RBI
grounder by Tinker, a double by Reynoso (2 hits) and an RBI single by
Chatterton (2 hits, 2 RBI) gave Wood River a 2-0 lead in the first. Two
leadoff walks led to two more runs and a 4-0 lead in the third.
That was
all Reynoso needed. Wood River played errorless ball and out-hit Blackfoot
9-6 led by Matt Conover (2 hits). Shortstop Durkin reached base four times
and scored twice. Paisley and McIlhenny added infield hits, and Conover
and Durkin turned a fine double play in the fifth.
Saturday,
Steve Hansen (2-0) got the pitching win in the 6-3 success over Salmon.
Wood River took the lead 4-3 with a three-run second. Paisley (2 hits, 2
runs) singled, McIlhenny walked, Jeff Hunter delivered a one-out, two-run
single and Tinker added an RBI single.
Righthander
Detwiler (1-0) earned his first win with a complete-game four-hitter in
the 13-4 afternoon triumph over Kimberly (3-4, 1-2) Saturday. It counted
as Wood River’s first league win of the 2002 season.
Wood River
(10 hits) sent up 12 batters in its decisive six-run fourth. Durkin ended
up scoring four times. Reynoso belted two triples and scored three runs.
Tinker, a hot hitter during the tournament, added two hits.
In other
tourney games, Blackfoot (2-2 tournament) beat Salmon 7-6 and Kimberly
13-4; and Kimberly (1-3) won 2-1 over Salmon (0-4).