Nothing like a big, double-scoop ice cream cone in the heat of mid-July, and the Wood River American Legion baseball team came close to tasting a double scoop of Area C "A" baseball victories Monday.
Trouble was, coach Gary Krumm's Kimberly Astros (22-8, 18-8 league) are a scrappy little bunch this summer with a nearly identical upper division record as coach Matt Nelson's scrappy little bunch from Wood River (22-8, 19-7 league).
And the score reflected the parity when Kimberly hosted Wood River Monday. In the first game, Wood River extended its winning streak to seven games with a 5-4 victory. Kimberly scored in its final at-bat to grab the nightcap 7-6.
Wood River (7-1-5 in twinbills) has played 13 doubleheaders this summer and Monday's was the closest of all. Nelson felt the Hailey boys should have won both, but he also felt it was good to have a couple of tough games to prepare Wood River for challenges ahead.
Those challenges are big.
Perennial high school and Legion contender Bear Lake of Montpelier comes to Hailey's Founders Field today, Wednesday, July 16 for a pair of games starting at noon. The Pocatello Razorbacks arrive Saturday, July 19 for a 1 p.m. twinbill.
Coach Craig Culver's Bear Lake squad (37-14) won the State "A" Legion tournament championship last August on Founders Field and then captured the Legion Regional "A" tournament title at Anchorage, Alaska later in August.
Saturday's season-ending games against Pocatello's Razorbacks will finalize Wood River's seed and opening-round game time into the Area C "A" district tournament Thursday, July 24 in Twin Falls.
Nelson's team, an 8-4 loser to Blackfoot in last year's district title game, is hoping to land one of the top four seeds and a first-round district tourney bye. Wood River was seeded seventh of 12 teams in 2007.
Tight games at Kimberly
Usually airtight, Hailey's defense keeps showing lapses that could cost it dearly in the district tournament.
Two unearned runs in the final inning of Monday's first game turned a solid 5-2 Wood River lead into the 5-4 nailbiter. And four unearned runs in the first inning of the nightcap gave the Astros a 5-0 lead and made it an uphill battle.
Overall Wood River out-hit Kimberly 22-10 in the doubleheader but left 14 on base, eight in scoring position. Four Hailey runners were thrown out on base paths in the 7-6 loss.
Still, Nelson was pleased with the complete-game pitching of Sean Bunce (5-0) in the first game. Bunce (95 pitches, 4 hits, 2 BB, 3 K) retired the first 10 Astros batters and got the big outs when he needed them. He also picked a runner off.
Wood River (12 hits) built a 5-0 lead after three innings by rocking Astros righty Blake Lawson. Back-to-back doubles by Michale Brunker (2 hits) and Trent Seamons (3 hits, 2 runs) in the first set the table for a sacrifice fly by Patterson and a two-out RBI single by Bryan Bray for a 2-0 edge.
Bunce's leadoff single in the second and a two-out, RBI single by Tyler Israel made it 3-0. Wood River scored its final runs in the third, starting with Seamons' leadoff single and an RBI single by Bray. Tyler Peters (2 hits) also singled. Bray scored on a double steal.
Kimberly catcher Willy Mumm made it closer with a two-out, two-run single in the fourth and the Astros added their two unearned runs in the seventh making the final 5-4. The fast game lasted only 1:37.
Having pitched Wood River's 14-2 nightcap triumph over Highland at Pocatello Saturday, righthander Trent Seamons came back and started Monday's nightcap at Kimberly. Immediately he ran into trouble caused by three Wood River infield errors in a 33-pitch first inning.
Kimberly batted around and scored five runs—and it might have been worse if not for a diving catch by Tyler Israel in right field with two outs and two runners aboard.
Seamons could have been out of the first with a 1-0 deficit and a lot fewer pitches on his mileage meter. He battled on the hill and blanked the Astros for the next four innings to keep it tight. Seamons' line: 88 pitches, 5 runs, 1 earned, 4 hits, 5 BB, 2 HBP and 4 K.
In the third, Wood River sent Astros lefty starter Cody Graham to the showers when Israel (2 hits, 2 runs) belted his first homer in five years over the right center field fence, a two-run tater.
The Hailey boys added two more runs. Seamons (2 hits, 2 runs) delivered an RBI single, Patterson (3 hits) singled to center and Seamons scored on another double steal.
Still trailing 5-4, Wood River tied it 5-5 in the fifth. Seamons (5-for-7 doubleheader) singled to left and scored on Patterson's RBI double.
Wood River ace Patterson relieved Seamons in the sixth and retired the 1-2-3 Astros batters with only seven pitches.
And Hailey pushed across the go-ahead run for a 6-5 lead in the seventh after a sharply-hit Israel leadoff single to center field. The Astros infield misplayed Seamons' slow roller and Patterson drove an infield hit off reliever Lawson's glove. Israel scored when Bray drew a bases-loaded, one-out walk.
Walks nearly always hurt.
Patterson walked Lawson, the leadoff Astros batter, in the seventh. Right fielder Dakota Cummins, who had stroked the game-winning hit for Kimberly in Friday's 17-16, 10-inning win over Marsh Falls, doubled down the right field line on a 0-2 offering from Patterson.
With runners on second and third and no outs, Nelson elected to intentionally walk Astros catcher Mumm and fill the bases to set up a force. But Patterson threw the first ball high for a wild pitch and Lawson scored from third. On the play Cummins moved to third as the potential winning run.
Mumm wasted no time, drilling the first offering by Patterson (7-2) over the drawn-in outfield to end the two-hour game and make Kimberly 4-2 on its six-game homestand that started last Thursday.
Last weekend, Wood River, led by a fine all-around effort from Brunker, had a dominating sweep of four eastern Idaho league road games.
Bunce and Jimmy Hague were the winning pitchers in Friday's 20-5 and 10-5 sweep at Shelley. Arriving 15 minutes before game time because of a bus breakdown near Carey, Wood River scored 11 runs in the first inning of the 20-5 win.
Patterson tossed a complete-game victory in Saturday's 12-3 win over Highland of Pocatello, and Seamons was the winning pitcher in the 14-2 nightcap over Highland. Wood River's hot hitters scored six runs on seven straight hits in the seventh inning of the 14-2 triumph.
It was the seventh doubleheader sweep of the 2008 season for Nelson's squad.
Wood River’s Sean Bunce has been the team’s most reliable pitcher of late, throwing two complete-game wins by scores of 3-2 and 5-4 in the last week.
