North and south, in two different leagues, they've been playing adult coed slow-pitch softball for two decades in the Wood River Valley.
And finally someone had the bright idea of matching Hailey and Ketchum All-Star squads in a one-game winner-take-all classic at the end of the season. As it turned out, it was a great idea, although Hailey is savoring it a little more than Ketchum.
That's because the Hailey All-Stars built a 9-0 lead after five frames and breezed to a 12-4 nine-inning triumph over the Ketchum All-Stars on a rainy and rainbow-filled Wednesday night at Atkinson Park's West Ketchum Coliseum.
Hailey's airtight defense led by outfielders Anna Edwards and Ryan Stavros and infielder Kellen Chatterton played errorless softball, and the Hailey offense banged out 19 hits sparked by Sean Harrington (4-for-4, 2 HR, double, 5 RBI).
If anything, the Hailey All-Stars were humming along in post-season form. They've played up to 20 games and they finished their season and city tournament last weekend. Ketchum teams, meanwhile, have played only six games this summer and still have their city tournament coming up.
Still, you've got to hit throughout your lineup and catch the ball. Visiting Hailey set the tone early in both those areas. Its first five men batted a combined 14-for-21. Meanwhile Ketchum was making five errors and managing only four hits and no runs in its first five at-bats. It was a tough start.
A two-out infield single by Greg Edwards drove home Jamie Stone with the first Hailey run. A throwing error plated Hailey's second run, and Harrington's one-out, two-run double made it 4-0 in the third.
Winning pitcher Mike Beall (5 innings, 0 runs, 4 hits) scattered three hits in the first three innings, and left fielder Edwards (6 putouts) was a rock.
It started to look like a rout when Hailey extra-hitter T.J. Peterson (2 hits, 2 runs) cranked out a two-run fence-clearing homer in the fourth. Chatterton's sacrifice fly made it 7-0. An inning later, Harrington pounded the first of his two homers, a long leadoff solo shot to left, for a 9-0 Hailey cushion.
Pouring rain that caused an eight-minute rain delay midway through the 90-minute contest didn't stop Hailey's quest.
Ketchum finally got on the board when Nic Nottingham blasted a sixth-inning, one-out double off the base of the left field fence and scored on Matt Christian's two-out RBI single. But Hailey answered back with Harrington's two-run blast and an RBI triple by Greg Edwards in the seventh for a 12-1 lead.
A final Ketchum bright spot came in the eighth when one-out singles by Rod Watson and Amanda Lyons (2 hits) set the stage for first baseman Kellee Havens. She stuck a toothpick in her mouth and drilled a line drive over the head of center fielder Stavros for a two-run triple. Jeff Burrell followed with an RBI double in Ketchum's three-run eighth.
But it was Hailey's night.
Hailey second baseman Chatterton, who turned a fine 4-4-3 double play on a hard grounder by Tom Moreland in the seventh, dove to take away a base hit from Ketchum's Buffalo Rixon (3 hits) with one out in the ninth. Chatterton flipped it to second for the force, and Ketchum went quietly after.
Other Hailey batters were Stavros (3 hits, 2 runs), Greg Edwards (3 hits, 2 RBI), Beall and Tina Murphy (2 hits each). The winning All-Stars scored runs in six of the nine innings.
Check the Aug. 12 Local Life section for more All-Star game photos.
Ketchum city tourney next
The eight-team Ketchum Coed Softball League will stage its 20th city tournament Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 1-2 at West Ketchum Coliseum.
Defending champion and regular-season king Color Haus (6-0 this season, 12-0 last summer) will put its two-season unbeaten mark on the line starting Saturday at 11 a.m. The double-elimination tourney concludes Sunday with the championship game at 2 p.m.
Here are the first-round match-ups. Games run from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday and resume Sunday at 9:30 a.m.
Saturday at 9:30 a.m.: No. 2-seeded Lefty's Bar & Grill (4-2) vs. No. 7-seeded Elevate/Stafftopia (0-6) on the lower field, and No. 4-seeded Casino (4-2) vs. No. 5-seeded Magpie's (2-4) on the upper field.
At 11 a.m., No. 1-seeded Color Haus (6-0) vs. the winner of Casino-Magpie's on the lower field, and No. 3-seeded Principal Recruiting/Group 6 (4-2) vs. No. 6-seeded Firefighters (1-5) on the upper field.
Hailey’s Sean Harrington gets all of it, belting a two-run homer in the seventh, his second tater of Wednesday’s All-Star Classic in Ketchum. Photo by David N. Seelig
