It was a great weekend of baseball fun and a little baseball education during the 37th annual Ray Nelson Invitational Little League tournament Friday and Saturday in Hailey.
The fun consisted of 42 games played by nine teams in the 11-12 year old "Majors" and eight teams in the 9-10 year old "Minors." And don't forget Friday's Donnelley Sports Skills Challenge on the big field.
Here's an example of the education every young player seems to pick up almost by osmosis at Nelson Field during the "rite of passage," known as the Ray Nelson Invitational:
A nine-year-old proudly wearing a Wood River uniform near the concession stand was playing a little pepper using an Elmo doll as a ball. He was coaching a three-year-old boy wearing a blue shirt that said, "No School, No Problem."
The older boy explained, "When you're up, when it's not a strike, don't swing at it, that's a ball, and when you get four balls you get to go to first base." Listening raptly, his limbs in full motion, the younger boy nodded "Yeah," breathlessly and gave Elmo another toss.
Hey batter!
Of course the Nelson players tossed and hit genuine hardballs on a hot weekend, and no team hit it harder than the Mini-Cassia Braves of Rupert.
The Braves scored 85 runs in six victories and won the nine-team "Majors" with a 13-8 victory Saturday evening over the Wood River All-Stars coached by Tony Benson, Randy Jorgensen and Mike David.
Nevertheless it was a great tournament for the Wood River 11-12s—indeed their best finish out of seven summer tournaments. Wood River won four games including three dramatic one-run wins over the Burley Rivercats, Northside All-Stars and Burley Bobcats.
In the "Minors," nobody was going to stop the unbeaten Fruitland Cubs (4-0, 60 runs in 4 games), but the Wood River South All-Stars coached by James Nelson and Lars Hovey gave it a go before dropping the 16-8 championship game.
All in all, the two silver trophies for the Wood River teams provided keepsakes for a weekend full of memories. And the Wood River A's did a good job with two wins in the "Minors."
10 wins for WR teams
Wood River's 11-12 year-old All-Stars sponsored by Idaho Lumber, Uhrig Fencing, Pepsi and Rocky Mountain Hardware won four of their six games.
They defeated Shelley 9-4 and then needed to win a pair of spine-tingling one-run games 4-3 over Burley Rivercats and 6-5 over the Northside All-Stars to emerge from Pool A as one of two semi-finalist qualifiers.
Against Burley, Wood River trailed 3-0 after two innings. The comeback started in the fourth with doubles by Austin Savaria and Cameron Benson and an RBI double by Marshall Reyburn. That made it 3-2.
In the two-run fifth, a walk to Gray David, double by Kyle Clark and singles by Jake Jorgensen and Anders Fortuin set up the game-winning single off the bat of Brandon Benson.
Wood River, after losing 9-3 to the Mini-Cassia Braves, needed to beat the Northside All-Stars in order to advance into the trophy games. But once again, the Hailey boys fell behind, this time by a more daunting 5-1 score after four.
Taylor Adler's one-out double started the amazing comeback. Brandon Benson (2 hits) followed with an RBI double. Savaria delivered a run-scoring single, Cameron Benson walked and Gage Jorgensen tied the game with a two-out, two-run triple. He kept coming around to score the 6-5 winner.
Wood River advanced to meet the Burley Bobcats in the semi-final game. And it started well for Hailey when Reyburn clouted a two-run homer in the first. Burley, winners of three close Pool B games, never gave up and led 9-8 in the fourth.
The back-and-forth game was hot and long, and the umpires decided to invoke the time limit in the fourth. Wood River had only three outs remaining and needed to score.
Brandon Benson led off and walked on four pitches. Cameron Benson (3 hits, 3 runs) ripped a one-out single to right and moved up to second, putting two runners in scoring position. Reyburn tied it 9-9 with an RBI fielder's choice, and Gage Jorgensen hit the first offering for a two-out RBI single and a 10-9 WR lead.
Wood River's closer, Cameron Benson, got Burley's first batter on a grounder to third, Reyburn tossing over to first baseman Finn Isaacson. Benson whiffed the second batter, and then caught a come-backer for the final out in a 1-2-3 frame.
Each team ended up with 10 hits in the championship game, but Mini-Cassia seized the initiative with a seven-run first and went ahead 9-0.
In the second, Wood River cut its deficit to 9-3 on six consecutive hits by Reyburn, Gage Jorgensen (double), Isaacson, Fortuin, David and Jake Jorgensen. The home team made it 9-4 in the fourth inning on a Gage Jorgensen leadoff walk and Isaacson RBI single.
Mini-Cassia, getting strong pitching by Tanner Harper, Hunter Breshears and Daniel Freiburger, responded with four runs for a 13-4 lead. But Wood River mustered one last rally to make it a lot closer.
Savaria singled, Cameron Benson walked and Reyburn (2 hits, 2 runs) ripped an RBI single up the middle. Gage Jorgensen (3 runs) walked, and Isaacson (3 hits) ripped a ground-run double to left for a 13-7 game. Fortuin (2 hits) chipped in an RBI single but the Hailey comeback stopped right there.
Excitement ran rampant in the "Minors" as well. Wood River South drew big crowds throughout the weekend. The boys thrilled supporters with four wins in six games. They averaged nine runs a game.
The tournament is named for Ray Nelson, a baseball booster from Hailey who bequeathed a love of the game to family members and friends after he passed away in 1970.
One of Nelson's great-grandchildren, nine-year-old Kyle Nelson, played for Wood River South. So did another grandchild, Zach Nelson.
In its first game, Wood River South (11 hits) beat Mini-Cassia 'Lil Spartans 15-12. Top hitters in that game were Tripp Hutchinson and Cade Schott (2 hits, 2 runs apiece) and Gunner Gibson (RBI triple).
Having been trounced by the Mini-Cassia Express earlier in the season, Wood River South made it much closer with a 12-10 loss in the next game. Actually the home team built an 8-4 lead with an eight-run second before the Rupert squad rallied. Reide Whitehead had two hits (double) and scored twice.
In one of the tournament's most exciting games, Wood River South just nipped the Wood River A's 7-6 in a loser-bracket contest. For much of the game it wasn't close, South leading 6-0 in the third, but the A's made it tight with a five-run sixth and just fell short.
South's five-run first included singles by Schott (2 hits, 2 runs), Jack Goodwin (2 hits) followed by a two-out RBI single by Hutchinson, an RBI double by Zach Nelson and two-run triple by Christian Blackman. A two-out single by Nic Tidwell and RBI double by Whitehead made it 6-0 in the third inning.
The A's (2-3 for the tourney) made it 6-1 in the fourth on a one-out triple by Jimmy Graves and RBI hit by Walker Whaley. Schott's two-out double and Goodwin's RBI single made it 7-1 and South needed all those runs because of the A's rally.
Walks to Will Long and Alec Nordsiek were followed by a two-out South error, a single by Mikey Levy and RBI triple by Joey Reidy. But the A's fell 7-6 and moved to the consolation bracket for their next games.
Still alive for a championship game berth, Wood River South then beat Boise Blaze 6-3 and avenged its earlier loss to Mini-Cassia Express 9-1.
Wood River South (15 hits) batted around with a seven-run third in the 9-1 triumph that eliminated the Express (4 hits). The Hailey explosion featured six straight hits by Tidwell (3 hits, 2 runs), Whitehead (3 hits, double), Hutchinson (2 hits, 2 runs, Gibson (2 hits), Schott (2 hits) and Blackman.
In the championship game, Wood River led 5-2 after two innings but ran out of gas against Fruitland's Cubs (3 runs in the third, 4 in the fourth, 7 in the fifth). The final score favored Fruitland 16-8.
Meanwhile, the Wood River A's won 4-3 over Buhl in the consolation bracket as Alec Nordsiek cranked out a leadoff homer in the sixth. Jimmy Graves singled and scored the winning run for the A's, coached by Mike Levy, Terry Wall and Mike Gardner.
The A's dropped the consolation championship 8-3 to the Twin Falls Cowboys despite two hits and two runs apiece by Mick Dawson and Graves. Earlier in the tournament, the A's had beaten the Cowboys 6-3 with a three-run fourth—Reidy, Cooper Moore and Keaton Wall scoring the decisive tallies.
For a complete tournament summary, check today's Express Web site. See next week's Local Life for a team photo of the Wood River 11-12 year olds.
Brock Mary of the Wood River South 9-10 All-Stars arrives safely at third base after clearing the bases with a clutch RBI double last weekend at the Ray Nelson Invitational tourney. Photo by Willy Cook
