Friday, June 11, 2004

Walk-off homer lifts Buhl over WR

In American Legion baseball

---

It came down to the final inning—and Buhl’s Tribe had a clutch swing when it counted.

Buhl’s Perry Hamilton reached out for a low curve ball and lifted it over the fence for a three-run, walk-off homer that beat the Wood River American Legion "A" team 6-4 Tuesday at Clint Faux diamond in Buhl.

The blast made a winner of Buhl righty Paul Gerrish, who continued his mastery of Wood River batters that started in the spring season when he was pitching for Filer. Gerrish allowed no hits and no batters to second base through five, and ended up with a three-hitter.

Wood River, stunned by the Kobe Bryant-like arrow, went meekly in the nightcap 7-1 to drop Hailey’s record to 2-2 on the season, 2-2 in Area C play.

"Buhl just beat us in that first game. Gerrish is a real solid pitcher, but it’s nothing we can’t handle. For us, Steve Hansen didn’t have his good stuff, but he had a lot of heart and threw good pitches," said Wood River coach Eli Lloyd.

Wood River showed heart as well, erasing a 3-0 Tribe lead with four runs in the sixth.

Morgan Uhrig walked, Brady Femling singled, Derek Abbott reached on an infield error and catcher Billy Kramer stroked a one-out, two-strike single that brought home two runs for Hailey. Tyson Reynoso then added a sacrifice fly.

Unfortunately, Hansen (10 hits, 4 K, 2 BB) faced the meat of the Tribe order in the seventh. Remington Daniels (4 hits) led off with an infield single, Gerrish singled and Hamilton cracked his game winner.

Defensively, Wood River (7 errors) didn’t have a great doubleheader, but third baseman Reynoso was tough gloving a bunch of grounders in the opener. "It was a tight game all the way," said Lloyd.

In the nightcap, Hamilton turned Wolverine-killer with a three-hitter on the mound. Tyler Thiede threw well for Wood River, Lloyd said, but Buhl (4-0, 4-0) built a 6-0 lead in the third helped by Wolverine miscues.

The Wolverines travel to Shelley for two more league games today, Friday, June 11 and go down to Burley Monday.

 

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.