Wednesday, May 4, 2005

Wood River walks off 6-5 over Minico

Uhrig's game winner gives Hailey 10th league title in 14 years


By JEFF CORDES
Express Staff Writer

The Minico Spartan coaches made their tactics pretty obvious when Wood River High School leadoff batter Morgan Uhrig came to the plate with the winning run at second base in the eighth inning of Monday's Great Basin Conference showdown at Founders Field.

Minico's coaches waved their outfielders way in, trying to cut off the potential winning run with a singles hitter at the plate and the score tied 5-5 in extra frames.

A great defensive maneuver? Not this time, not this day.

Second baseman Uhrig, the only Hailey junior starting Monday's huge "Senior Night" game on the Hailey diamond before a large crowd, did what any self-respecting member of the athletic Uhrig family would have done in the same spot.

He drilled a double over the head of the backpedaling center fielder sending Tyson Reynoso home with the game winner—and giving Wood River (18-6, 5-1 league) a dramatic 6-5 walk-off victory and a share of the 2005 Great Basin West regular-season title, with Minico.

Wood River's 10th league baseball championship in 14 years, and fifth straight, was unique because it was the first achieved at the tougher 4A level of competition. The Wolverines stayed unbeaten at home in 2005 and improved their four-year Founders Field record to an amazing 35-2.

"It was a great game and Morgan ended it with that hit," said winning pitcher Steve Hansen (4-3), who survived two perilous innings of relief and stranded three Minico runners with a pop fly to douse a big threat in the visitor eighth.

Wood River coach Lars Hovey agreed. "It was a fun game to end the season on Senior Night."

Minico (17-7, 5-1) had entered the game a heavy favorite. The Spartans have put together a fine season outscoring its opponents 235-108 (9.8 to 4.5 per game) including five league wins by a cumulative 65-14 score. And Minico had jumped out and beaten Wood River, and Hansen, 11-3 on April 12.

Pitching in relief of starter Reynoso, Hansen got another chance against Minico and made the most of it. He yielded the game-tying run in the seventh but stranded the potential go-ahead run at third. Then, Hansen walked two Spartans to jam the bases in the eighth.

"It was intense," said Hansen, who hadn't pitched in a save situation for a couple of years. "Tyson threw a great game and I guess I got a little retribution. Minico is a great ball club and we were just trying to get a little confidence against them.

"But the guys played great defense and didn't make any errors."

Minico, in contrast, was sloppy in the field and committed three errors in the first four innings. Playing "small ball," Wood River capitalized by manufacturing five runs—three unearned for a 5-2 lead.

Hovey said, "Minico gave us a few runs early, which they don't usually do. And we took advantage. Getting the early lead was psychologically a big boost, because we had gotten into a huge hole at Minico. Then we just tried to scrape away and get a run here and a run there because we knew they would mount a rally."

Minico did, but Wood River was equal to it and won its first extra inning game in 116 contests dating back to 2001.

In the first, Uhrig (3 hits) drew a leadoff walk, Brady Femling (2 hits, 2 runs) blooped a single to right and Hansen lofted a towering fly ball that center fielder McCoy Worthington lost in the sun. Uhrig scored, then Tyler Thiede rapped a bleeder between third and short for an infield single. Minico's first error, also in the infield, plated Femling.

Billy Kramer's grounder scored Hansen and it was 3-0 Wood River right off the bat. Hailey added one for a 4-0 lead in the third on Uhrig's bunt single, two Minico errors and another Kramer RBI bouncer.

On the mound righthander Reynoso cruised along, throwing a lot of first-pitch strikes and retiring nine straight Spartans after a two-out double by their stud pitcher Cory Warburton in the first inning.

The next time Warburton came up, Reynoso enticed an infield fly for the second out in the fourth. Pulling a Manny Ramirez, Reynoso thought it was the third out and started walking off the mound.

It was wishful thinking, and Reynoso suddenly fell out of rhythm. He plunked the next two batters and Spartan shortstop Matt Tracy ripped a two-run double to left field. Minico was alive, down by just 4-2.

Wood River got one back when Dylan Fullmer opened with a bloop single in the home fourth and Uhrig delivered a two-out double down the right field line for a 5-2 cushion.

Reynoso (77 pitches, 7 hits, 4 runs, 3 K) continued to battle in the fifth and sixth as Minico started attacking him on the first pitch and ripped four hits. But Reynoso minimized the damage and left the game with a precarious 5-4 lead after six.

Hovey and assistant coach Larry Lloyd quickly assessed their pitching staff, which had worked overtime in four games at the Preston tourney last weekend. The freshest was Hansen, who threw five frames Friday. "Steve said his arm felt pretty good," Hovey said.

In the seventh, Hansen nearly escaped a threat but with two outs Minico catcher Jarred Tracy cracked a first-pitch RBI double to the right field gap for a 5-5 deadlock.

Meanwhile, Minico starting pitcher Warburton (108 pitches, 9 hits, 3 earned runs, 3 K) had been making short work of the Wood River batters with scoreless work in the fifth and sixth. He sent the game into extra innings with a couple of fly balls after Femling's leadoff single in the home seventh.

The first two batters in the Spartan eighth got aboard and scampered to second and third on a sacrifice bunt. Hansen got a huge strikeout, walked leadoff hitter Worthington (2 hits) then got first baseman Greg Christensen to pop to Femling.

Warburton came out again in the home eighth and Wood River batters tried to be a little more patient. Hovey said, "Cory really wants it out there. We just tried to get a few more pitches on him at that point."

With one gone, Reynoso walked on a 3-1 pitch. Derek Abbott ripped a liner headed up the middle, but it tailed into the glove of second baseman Justin Bennett, who made a fine catch. Then, Huston Brashears drew another walk on a 3-1 pitch.

Uhrig came to the plate, Minico's coaches pulled the outfield in, and on a 1-0 offering Uhrig pounded the ball over the head of Worthington. Reynoso raced home with the winner.

Hovey felt pretty good about his pitching staff after the game, with Reynoso throwing well and Hansen closing it out. About Hansen, Hovey said, "Steve didn't throw a very good game at Minico and it rattled him a little. Today's game got the monkey off his back."

Each team had nine hits, but Minico had four errors. Femling and Hansen each had two hits. The 1-2-3 batters in the Hailey lineup went 7-for-12 with 4 runs and 3 RBI, compared to Minico's 4-for-12 with 1 run and 1 RBI for its 1-2-3 men.

Wood River will play either Jerome or Burley Thursday, May 5 at 4:30 p.m. at Founders Field in the opening round of the Great Basin West tourney.

Because Minico had a better record in games against common opponents—the first tiebreaker—the Spartans have drawn the #1 tournament seed and will host Friday's semi-final game in the event that Minico and Wood River prevail in their openers Thursday.

A loser-out game is set f or Saturday and the championship contest is Monday.

The tournament winner automatically qualifies for state, while the runner-up must win two playoff games to play in Nampa May 19-21.

WOLVERINE NOTES—Wood River is now 35-2 at home since 2002 (13-0 in 2002, 6-1 in 2003, 8-1 in 2004 and 8-0 this year)....Ace pitcher Steve Hansen (22-6 career) has passed Matt Zachary (21-5) on the all-time Wood River pitching wins list. The leader is Ryne Reynoso (23-5)....It was Wood River's first 1-run victory since the 3-2 SCIC championship game success at home over Buhl May 13, 2003....Incredibly, Wood River hadn't played an extra inning game since a 24-16 eight-inning home loss to Buhl in the SCIC title contest May 9, 2001....Wood River's streak of league titles would have been eight straight if not for 2000, when the Hailey boys spotted Buhl the SCIC league title then beat the host Tribe 4-1 in the district tournament championship.




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