Given a little pitching and defense, the Wood River High School baseball team is always going to a dangerous force in the Great Basin Conference tournament. You know that any Matt Nelson-coached team is going to hit the ball hard.
Pound the ball hard with an extra dose of patience at the plate is exactly what #5-seeded Wood River did Tuesday in the opening round of the GBC tournament against #4 Burley, a team that had beaten the Wolverines three times by a 29-14 score earlier in the season.
Wood River (7-16) put together six-run and five-run uprisings to upset Burley (13-16) by a score of 12-6. Besides its 12 hits (5 doubles), Nelson's team got fine pitching from junior Jake Freeman and the kind of stubborn defense that has been missing most of the spring.
Nelson said, "We played some of the best defense we've had all year. Our shortstop Keven Abbott made two outstanding plays—one in the first inning when he just laid out for a ball and Juan (Martinez) dug the throw out of the dirt at first base, and the second in the hole to prevent Burley from scoring a run later on.
"Behind the plate our catcher Zak Sjoberg dug out every ball. For the day, we only made two errors."
Rangy righthander Freeman, who has battled shoulder problems for two years, went deep into the game for the second straight outing—pitching into the seventh and final frame. He scattered seven hits, whiffed four, walked two, hit two and was relieved by Martinez with runners aboard in the home seventh.
"Jake was on fire, locating his fastball on the inside and outside corners, and throwing breaking balls for first-pitch strikes. He got us a ton of grounders and pop-ups, then Juan came on and retired Burley with nasty breaking stuff," Nelson said.
Wood River's hitting picked up where the Hailey batters left off in last weekend's 11-5, 15-5 and 10-9 sweep of Canyon Ridge. Indeed, Tuesday's victory gave the Wolverines a season-best four-game winning streak after a 12-game losing skid.
Nelson said, "We hit the ball hard all day long and also saw a ton of pitches—the kind of five-pitch and seven-pitch at-bats that wear down a pitcher. Another thing was we were aggressive on the base paths."
Burley righty Fonzie Sanchez had tamed Wood River 13-6 in Hailey April 10 with a lot of first-pitch strikes that led to an efficient four-hitter. But, although the Wolverines didn't score in the first inning Tuesday, they made Sanchez work harder. Sjoberg had a seven-pitch at-bat.
In the second, Wood River broke free with six runs. Lefty Alex "Squid" Padilla, perhaps the league's hottest hitter, ripped a double and Abbott followed with his own two-bagger. Designated hitter Shane Friesen chipped in with an RBI single. With the sacks jammed, Martinez smoked a run scoring shot down third base.
Sjoberg added a two-run double and Zach Israel finished the big inning with an RBI double of his own.
Rattled, Sanchez didn't survive Wood River's five-run fourth after Freeman's leadoff single. He walked Jimmy Hague, Sjoberg and Israel. Nelson said, "Jimmy had a 12-pitch at-bat, Zak seven pitches and Zach eight pitches. Then Squid brought them all home with a double."
Padilla finished with three hits to lead Wood River into Thursday's second-round GBC game against regular-season league champ Twin Falls (22-4).
Nelson said, "After the game when I told them they were going to be playing Twin Falls, there was no fear—just a bunch of guys who wanted to keep on doing it."
Wood River's welcome effort wasn't the only upset Tuesday. Sixth-seeded Canyon Ridge (3-22), after a winless league season, went into Jerome and whipped the #3-seeded Tigers (12-15) by a 7-3 score.
So Canyon Ridge traveled to #2-seeded Minico (19-9) Thursday while Jerome hosted Burley in a loser-out game. Those two games along with Wood River's clash at Twin Falls will help determine where and when the Wolverines play next.
If Wood River beat Twin Falls, the Hailey boys travel to the Minico-Canyon Ridge winner Saturday, May 8 at 1 p.m. If Wood River lost to Twin, most likely the Wolverines will wait until Monday, May 10 to play next—and that could be at home or away.
Championship game is Thursday, May 13. Two GBC teams qualify for the State 4A tournament May 20-22 in Nampa. Wood River last qualified for state in 2008.
Four-time defending conference champion Minico won last year's GBC tournament over Jerome 8-0 and Wood River went 0-2, losing at Minico 14-7 and at Burley 5-4. Twin Falls played in the State 5A tournament last spring.
Wood River junior Alex Padilla has spent plenty of time on the basepaths this spring because he’s been battering the ball all over the park, mostly into gaps or over the outfielder’s heads. Photo by David N. Seelig
