Mariners win Firecracker tournament

POLSON - The Mission Valley Mariners A team defended their house at the Mission Valley Firecracker Tournament held this weekend in Polson. Behind a no-hitter by Kyle Bagnell, the Mariners capped off their 4-0 weekend with a 1-0 victory over the Missoula Pioneers in the championship game on Sunday.

The lone run of that game was scored in the fourth inning when Chris Alfiero singled, stole second base and reached third on an error. Justin Evans was able to reach on an error, which brought Alfiero home.

Bagnell struck out six more batters after that run had scored, including three in the top of the seventh, to ice the game for the Mariners.

"It's not easy to win your own tournament," Mariners head coach Jami Hanson said.

Since players are also responsible for helping run the tournament, both the Mariners A and B teams had to be at the field early in the morning to help with field maintenance. They also helped operate the scoreboard and run the public address system as well. All these distractions meant a long day at the ballpark before they even picked up a bat.

The Mariners started the Firecracker Tournament on Wednesday beating the Mission Valley Rockies 9-0. The M's scored in every inning of the game, which lasted five frames.

On Thursday, the Mariners powered their way past Deer Lodge 7-2 with home runs from Derrick Rathe and Justin Evertz. It was a low-scoring affair, at first, with Deer Lodge taking the early 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second. The Mariners tied things up in the bottom of the third inning with a sacrifice fly by William "Braveheart" Wallace to drive home Evans.

Rathe's home run gave the Mariners the 2-1 lead in the fourth, but Deer Lodge answered back with a home run of their own to make it 2-2.

Then the wheels fell off. In the bottom of the fifth inning, a passed ball allowed Evans to score, followed by a single to center by Matt Detwiler for an RBI. In the seventh, the Mariners scored again on an error and Evertz hit a two-run shot to make it 7-2 and that would remain the final score.

The Mariners exploded against the Glacier Twins on Saturday. They used an 11-hit, 10-run second inning to coast to a 17-6 win. Xavier Morigeau had a grand slam in the bottom of the fourth and five players had multi-hit games. Detwiler went 2-for-4 with three RBIs.

That set the stage for a showdown with the rival Loggers in their fourth game of the tournament.

"We've been battling with Libby all year long in championship games," Hanson said.

The Loggers had defeated the Mariners in the championship game of their tournament, so revenge was in order.

"It was time to pay the favor back," Hanson said.

Through five innings, it appeared that the Loggers might have the last laugh as they jumped out to a 4-0 lead. Going into the bottom of the seventh, the Mariners found themselves down 5-1 but with a good shot at the championship game due to their run differential tie-breaker over the other squads in the tournament.

It would have been very easy for them to pack it in and get ready for the Missoula Pioneers. Instead, the M's came storming back. After loading the bases, a passed ball allowed Evertz to score.

Then after a walk, Xavier Morigeau drove in one run with a sac fly and Kaileb Gillingham drove home Bagnell. Then two errors by the Loggers on back-to-back at bats led to Gillingham scoring and the game going to extra innings.

In the top of the ninth, the Mariners went away from their starter Josh Rustad, he finished the game giving up just two earned runs, striking out nine and walking one.

"That's what he has been doing all year," Hanson said.

The M's relieved Rustad with Morigeau, who got the Libby batter to ground into a double play.

After an error and a stolen base put a Libby batter in scoring position, a hard-hit single ended with a great play at home as catcher Tim Rausch tagged out the runner. In the bottom of the ninth, Evans singled to center field then reached second base on a passed ball. Morigeau bunted him to third base and Gillingham was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Another Libby error on a ball hit by Tyler Linse led to Evans scoring and the Mariners kept their weekend record perfect with a 6-5 win.

The Mariners will head to the John Harp Memorial Tournament next weekend in Kalispell.

Mariners B Update

The Mariners B team struggled offensively over the weekend, but did defeat the Mission Valley Rockies to finish 1-3 in the Firecracker Tournament.

The Missoula Pioneers, who ended up playing the Mariners A-team in the championship, defeated the B-team 13-0 to start the weekend.

"They're a very good team, they hit the ball very well," Mariners B team head coach Chris Brown said.

The Pioneers had six doubles in the loss.

In their next game against the Glacier Twins, the Mariners scored three runs in the bottom of the seventh to tie things up 4-4.

The Twins struck back though, scoring two runs in the top of the eighth and the Mariners couldn't answer back, losing 6-4 to the Twins.

It was one of two games over the weekend for the Mariners that was decided in the last inning of the game.

"We very easily could have been 3-1 on the weekend," Brown said.

Due to rain, the Mariners game against the Mission Valley Rockies was pushed back to Sunday morning. In that game, they fell behind 4-0 in the top of the first inning, and found themselves down 5-4 in the bottom of the fourth. Kevin Hagedorn hit a suicide squeeze bunt to take the lead in a six-run fourth for the Mariners. They then followed that up with four more runs.

"That was good to see, we needed a spark to get going," Brown said.

In the bottom of the fifth, the Mariners scored three more runs to end the game because of the eight-run rule. Jacob Young drove in Cole McArthur to end the game, a 13-5 victory. They then had to play a game against the Montana Reps right after they defeated the Rockies.

"That was probably one of our best games in the tournament," Brown said.

The Mariners had six hits but had trouble putting runs across the plate and ended up losing 3-1.

"There was a lot of missed opportunities in that game," Brown said. "We had eight guys on base in scoring position."

Despite the loss, Kellen Hoyt was dominant on the mound, pitching five scoreless innings.

"He's been the ace of the B team all year," Brown said. "It was really, really nice to see him throw like that."

The Reps broke a 1-1 tie in the top of the seventh with two runs and the struggling Mariners' bats couldn't answer.

Despite his team's record, Brown is very proud about how his team has come together over the season. They dug themselves out of an 0-6 start to the season and are currently 10-16.

The B team will finish their season with a doubleheader at 5 p.m. this Thursday in Libby.

Four players will be moving up to the A team for the stretch run. Robbie Gauthier, Dalton Molzhon, Chris Clary and Kevin Hagedorn will all make the jump.

"They had a very special skill set that they needed to come up," Brown said. "We could have brought everybody up and they would have been fine."