MISSOULA — After shaking off some rust from having last week off, the Mission Valley Rockies got down to business and held the three-time state champion Missoula Pioneers to their lowest run total of the season. While the Pioneers took the doubleheader by scores of 16-3 and 2-0, the Rockies again showed they’re probably the biggest threat to Missoula’s bid for a four-peat.

MISSOULA — After shaking off some rust from having last week off, the Mission Valley Rockies got down to business and held the three-time state champion Missoula Pioneers to their lowest run total of the season. While the Pioneers took the doubleheader by scores of 16-3 and 2-0, the Rockies again showed they’re probably the biggest threat to Missoula’s bid for a four-peat.

That second game was the closest the Pioneers have been played by another Senior Babe Ruth team so far this season. The first game started out slow for Mission Valley and errors let the Pioneers jump out to a big lead en route to the 16-3 win.

Missoula scored five in the first and nine in the second inning, before Rockies’ pitcher Ryan Turner came into the game and finished things out, scattering five hits and allowing just one unearned run.

“That was his first outing of the year,” Rockies head coach Alan Anderson said. “He will definitely develop into one of our better pitchers. Ryan did well and he had a good day at the dish too.”

While errors held up Mission Valley out on the field, the Rockies still got hits from Nick Grogan, Chris Greiber, Eric Milner and Jeremiah Crawford. Ryan Anderson, Geiber and Crawford also drove in Mission Valley’s runs.

The Rockies bounced back in the second game and with Crawford on the mound, nearly neutralized the Pioneers’ attack.

“I had a pretty good talk with them in between games and they came around,” Anderson said. “If you just look at the scorebook it looks like we won. Pioneers coach Dwayne McCrudden told me after the game that it felt like we outplayed them in that game. It was a good feeling after you get beat up like that in the first game sometimes you let it carry over to the next one but it was like a whole new ballgame.”

While Missoula won 2-0, they got lucky since Mission Valley stranded 12 runners on base and eight in scoring position.

“When it looked like we were going to score a run our bats kind of let us down,” Anderson said.

After the Pioneers scored a run in the first inning, Crawford held them scoreless for four innings before they plated another run in the sixth. Crawford finished game with 5 2/3 innings pitched, allowing just one earned run and seven hits while striking out seven.

“He did a really awesome job,” Anderson said. “He was throwing well and he wasn’t throwing a lot of pitches. When you hold a team like the Pioneers to seven hits, that’s a good thing.”

Crawford also did well at the plate, going 2-for-2 with two walks. Turner also went 2-for-2 and Eneas Inmee, who was sidelined after a hard comebacker hit him in the face earlier in the season, got a hit as well.

“That was really good for Eneas,” Anderson said. “He got that hit and he was all excited. That was good to have him back.”

Greiber, Branson Krebes and Milner also had hits for the Rockies.

LIBBY WOOD BAT TOURNAMENT

Mission Valley now heads to the Libby Wood Bat Tournament and will face Missoula and Libby on Saturday before taking on Calgary and Kootenai Valley on Sunday. Anderson said it will be quality competition for the Rockies but it’s one of the team’s favorite tournaments of the year.

“To me it evens the playing field,” Anderson said of using the wooden bats. “You have to hit it in that sweet spot to get it anywhere.”

Anderson said that his team sometimes uses the bats in practice and some of his players even use them in regular games. He likes their confidence heading into the Libby Tournament and once the Rockies get their full roster when kids are done with school, he likes where the team is heading for the rest of the season.

“I’m confident we’re getting things going right now,” Anderson said. “We’ll start playing full time and we just haven’t gotten things to click altogether at the same time but I’m confident that we’ll do that.”

MISS. 16, MV 3

MV - 111 - 00 - 3

MP - 592 - 0x- 16

Rockies - 4 hits Missoula - 16 hits

Rockies batting - Chris Geiber 1-3, Keith Woodward 0-3, Eric Milner 1-3, Jeremiah Crawford 1-1, Eneas Inmee 0-1, Ryan Anderson 0-2, Branson Krebes, 0-1, Curt Sidel 0-1, Warren Wood 0-1, James Rulison 0-1, Nick Grogan 1-1, Ryan Turner 0-1.

RBIs - Greiber, Crawford, Anderson

R Pitching - Milner (2 IP), Turner (2 IP)

MISS. 2, MV 0

MV - 000 - 000 - 0 - 0

MP - 100 - 001 - x - 2

Rockies - 8 hits Missoula - 7 hits

Rockies batting - Nick Grogan 0-2, Chris Geiber 1-2, Branson Krebes 1-4, Eric Milner 1-4, Jeremiah Crawford 2-2, Ryan Anderson 0-2, Warren Wood 0-4, Ryan Turner 2-2, Eneas Inmee 1-1, Keith Woodward 0-2, Damian Mathis 0-1.

R Pitching - Crawford (5 2/3 IP, 7K) Chris Geiber

(1/3 IP, IK)