Wednesday, July 7, 2010

More fireworks! Huge Legion rally beats Bear Lake 36-28

64 runs, 62 hits in 9-inning baseball barrage


Wood River American Legion baseball coach Matt Nelson said he'd never seen anything like it.

Home plate umpire Craig Mills agreed. In a four-hour baseball game, two teams combined for 64 runs and 62 hits.

Afterwards, one Wood River parent remarked the Wranglers had scored more runs in one game than the Wolverine high school boys' basketball team had scored in points during some games last winter.

When Monday's post-holiday fireworks at Hailey's Founders Field were all shot off and done, the Wranglers rallied for a beyond-belief 36-28 Area C "A" nine-inning victory over Bear Lake from Montpelier. At one point, Wood River trailed 26-9.

But the Wranglers plated 27 runs in their final three at-bats to give Nelson his first coaching victory over a Bear Lake Bears team in 10 years.

"I ran out of fingers and toes to keep track of the score," said Nelson.

Led by a six-hit performance by lefty Alex Padilla and five hits off the bat of Keven Abbott, Wood River finished the game with 33 hits, compared to Bear Lake's 29. The starting Wranglers pitcher, Jake Freeman, wasn't around for the finish. Three other hurlers mopped up, with Abbott earning the triumph and Collin Dean (0 unearned runs) dousing the fire with two innings of strong relief.

Wood River (10-19, 8-16 league) improved its Founders Field record to 7-5 since the nine-inning affair counted as two league contests.

Trailing 10-4 after three innings and 15-5 in the fifth, Wood River kicked off its massive rally with four runs in the fifth sparked by a two-run triple by Zach Israel (4 hits, 6 runs) and an RBI triple off the red-hot bat of outfielder Padilla (6 hits, 5 runs).

After Bear Lake scored 11 runs in the sixth for a 26-9 cushion, Wood River kept pecking away with four straight hits and six runs in the home sixth—an RBI triple by Tyler Peters (2 hits, 3 HBP, 1 BB) the big blow.

Jimmy Hague's leadoff double sparked the 13-run, 10-hit Wood River home seventh that turned a 27-15 deficit into a 28-27 Hailey lead

Among the highlights: A two-run triple by Abbott (5 hits, 5 runs), an outstanding at-bat by Peters for a walk that ignited the huge rally, a two-run single by Taz Lyons, and a pair of terrific squeeze bunts by Brandon Beall and Padilla.

Doubles by Abbott, Padilla and Hague were factors in Wood River's eight-run eighth that put it away. Dean (3 hits, 5 runs) and Connor Braatz (4 runs) also played big roles.




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