While the three participating Wood River teams will have to wait until next year for another crack at the Ray Nelson Memorial Tournament title, their efforts in the 2007 edition were enough to keep them from going home empty-handed.
The Wood River East All Stars, coached by Mike Brunker, took third place in the 12-team 11-12 year-old "Major Division," while the play Wood River West All Stars, coached by Don Cooper, earned the Sportsmanship Award.
In the "Minor Division," made up of seven teams of 9-10 year-olds, the Wood River South All Stars, coached by Tony Benson and Randy Jorgensen, left the ball field as consolation champion.
Over the course of Friday and Saturday, 250 Little Leaguers played in 36 games, giving many hours of entertainment to the approximately 750 fans who showed up to Nelson Field to cheer at the 36th annual baseball tournament that has become an institution in Hailey.
The top prizes were taken home by the Twin Falls Americans in the "Major Division," who defeated the Nampa Tar Heels 8-7 in the final, and the Jerome Northside All Stars, who had to play three consecutive games on Saturday to win the "Minor Division."
"It was really impressive, they had to play four games in one day, and three of them were back-to-back," said Holly Carter, the publicity coordinator for the Wood River Baseball and Softball Association, who was also the scorekeeper for Jerome's 5-0 victory over the Nampa All Stars.
While the Wood River South players were disappointed in not claiming that trophy for themselves, they showed the character of the team by coming back to win the consolation bracket by a score of 9-8 over the Burley All Stars.
"We weren't ready," catcher Jake Jorgensen said of his team's two losses.
Jorgensen, described by Carter as the "workhorse of the team," made a fantastic diving play to tag out a runner at home plate during South's opening game victory over the Mini-Cassia Express. The bats were alive in their 18-10 win, with Cameron Benson and Austin Savaria getting three hits each, and Benson and Will Long sharing duties on the mound.
Benson's hitting continued in the second game, where he ripped a double, and Tristan Kuhlhanek added two hits, but the home team was unable to recover from the nine runs the Meridian All Stars scored in the first inning, eventually dropping the game 19-6.
In its third game on Friday, the South squad watched as Mini-Cassia gained revenge with an 11-7 win, despite South's late game five-run surge that proved too little too late.
It was the consolation game that provided the most excitement, as South rallied from a four-run deficit in the bottom of the final inning to win by a run. Thanks to some wild pitching from the Burley staff, a triple by Reide Whitehead, and vocal support from the dugout, South earned the five runs necessary win Nelson tournament hardware.
In "Major" action, the Wood River West squad came into the tournament blazing, quickly opening up a 7-0 lead over the Mini-Cassia Bandits after three innings, a result of strong bats and Connor Hall's even stronger pitching as he struck out six. However, Mini-Cassia was not out, exploding for 12 runs in the bottom of the last inning, leading to a final score of 16-7.
West's woes continued into the second contest, where they fell 10-3 to the Jerome Northside Blue All Stars, despite Marshall Reyburn's triple threatened to bring the local boys back into contention.
In their final game of the weekend, West once again benefited from the stellar pitching of Hall, who struck out six batters in three innings and also smacked a triple to help take a 3-0 lead. Nampa responded with a six-run fourth inning, and Hall, after yet another triple, tried to tie the game on a wild pitch, but was tagged out at the plate, ending the game at 6-5. The team's play and spirit didn't go unnoticed, however, as Wood River West received the Ray Nelson Memorial Sportsmanship Award for their division.
After winning their first three games, the Wood River East All Stars looked poised to take the "Major" title for the first time since 2000. East opened the tournament with a 9-2 rout over the Burley Yankees, as Parker Weekes, Nickolas Brunker, and K.J. Savaria combined on the mound to allow just three hits in five innings.
In a much closer game, East dispatched the Meridian Sidewinders with a 5-4 win, in which Braxton Parish came in to pitch the last two outs, including a great defensive stop to end the game. The hot bats returned for East's third game on Friday, when three hits by Parker Weekes and two by KT Martinez, including an inside-the-park homerun, paced the home team to an 11-2 win over the Paul Dawg, putting East into the semi-finals.
Martinez was back in form on Saturday, scoring both of East's two runs against the Twin Falls Americans, a team averaging over 10 runs per game. Parish, Weekes and Colton Braatz kept the Americans to three runs, but this ended up being enough for the 3-2 victory, as Martinez was left stranded on second as the final two East batters were retired.
In their fifth game of the weekend, the East All Stars ran out of gas, losing 8-1 to the Nampa Tar Heels, their lone run coming on Parish's solo homerun. Despite the loss, East placed third out of the 12 teams participating in the "Major" division of the tournament, also their best finish of the season.
"These kids played their tails off—all year," coach Mike Brunker said. "I'm very proud of the way they played."
While the success of the Wood River teams varied, that of the Nelson tournament as whole did not. The popularity of the event was evident by the number of families camping out around Nelson Field and the fact that tournament organizers Buffy and Mike Brunker had to turn away other teams that wanted to participate.
"This tournament is well put on and the most fun of the ones we go to," said Kim Bishop, whose son Trae is the catcher on Twin Falls. "It's well put on and the kids love to come here because of the mountains and the nice community."
For more pictures from the Nelson please see the Local Life section of the Express, August 11 or 18.
Jake Jorgenson has been key behind the plate all season for Wood River South. The Ray Nelson Memorial Tournament in Hailey was no exception.
