Commanding pitching performances by Pat Patterson and Trent Seamons carried the Wood River American Legion baseball team to the third-place trophy of last weekend's Nampa Outback Father's Day wood bat tournament.
Legion coach Matt Nelson summoned his ace Patterson twice. The college-bound righthander responded with two complete-game wins, 3-0 in Thursday's opener over host Nampa and 6-2 over Kuna Sunday in the third-place game.
Seamons, also a righthander, tossed a three-hitter Friday afternoon as Wood River earned a tie for first place in its Pool A with a 2-1 victory over Mountain Home.
Wood River, Mountain View and Mountain Home each logged 2-1 records in the four-team Pool A. But Mountain Home earned the right to play Upper Valley for the championship Sunday afternoon based on its runs-against in the pool games. Mountain Home had eight runs against, Wood River nine and Mountain View 15.
Being relegated to the third-place game didn't bother Nelson. "We'll take it!" he said about the third-place trophy, knowing his team put forth a good effort in the four-day meet and plenty of the younger players got time on the field.
Wood River (10-2, 7-1 Area C "A", 104 runs scored, 52 against) improved to 6-2 away from home and put its 4-0 home record on the line Tuesday with a league twinbill against the Twin Falls Cowboys, at Hailey's Founders Field.
At Nampa, Wood River played at Rodeo Park where Nelson's Wolverine high school team played so well during May's State 4A tournament, placing fourth with narrow losses to champion Bishop Kelly and Minico.
Patterson (3-0) gave Wood River a kick-start and momentum with his 117-pitch two-hit shutout over Nampa Thursday. He walked four and whiffed nine. In his three Legion mound efforts to date this summer, Patterson has allowed only six runs in 21 innings.
At the plate it was a big game for first baseman Bryan Bray. He drew a leadoff walk and scored the first Wood River run on a passed ball. In the fifth, Bray doubled and scored on an RBI single by Tyler Israel. After Kyle Rose was plunked in the sixth, Bray drove Rose home for the final run with a run-scoring single.
Wood River came very close to winning its pool outright, narrowly losing 8-7 to Mountain View in a back-and-forth game Friday. Pitching were Jake Freeman and Greg Wakefield (1-1), who absorbed the tough loss with four-and-a-third innings of pretty solid relief.
Keven Abbott got Wood River off and running to 2-0 and 4-1 leads against Mountain View. He led off with a single and scored on Israel's RBI triple in the first. Later, Abbott's sacrifice fly made it 4-1 but Mountain View battled back for a 4-4 tie.
Wood River kept pushing single runs across the plate, Michale Brunker coming up with productive singles to put runners in scoring position. Seamons (twice) and Jimmy Hague hit sacrifice flies as Wood River inched ahead 7-6. But Mountain View rallied for two runs in the bottom of the seventh to win 8-7.
Seamons (3 hits, 0 BB, 6 K) got the nod in the third game against Mountain Home and delivered a scintillating performance. "Trent threw a gem," said Nelson.
He allowed two of the three hits and the only run in the seventh inning but Seamons worked his way out of the jam. At the plate, Wood River manufactured the two runs it needed—the first unearned and the second after a Brunker single and a double steal that sent Brunker home.
On Sunday, Patterson (115 pitches, 79 for strikes, 5 BB, 13 K) returned to the hill and threw a two-hitter in the 6-2 victory over Kuna. Patterson also ignited the Wood River attack in the first frame.
After a Seamons walk, Patterson ripped an RBI triple and scored on Bray's run-scoring single for a 2-0 Hailey lead in the first. RBI doubles by Brunker and Seamons made it 4-0 in the second. Abbott delivered a two-run single in the sixth for more insurance runs.
Wood River makes an overnight trip to eastern Idaho Thursday and Friday for league twinbills against the Idaho Falls Rangers at Tautphaus Park and Marsh Falls Friday, June 20 at 2 p.m. in American Falls. Next home games are Tuesday, June 24 against Upper Valley, in Hailey.
