Runnin' Rebels' season comes to an end after going two-and-out at Northwest regional tournament

It wasn’t the showing that the Pocatello Post 4 Runnin’ Rebels were hoping for.

They went two-and-out at last week’s American Legion Northwest Regional Tournament in Billings, Montana. Pocatello fell 8-5 to Alaska Wednesday before getting shutout 8-0 to the eventual regional champion Montana the following day Thursday.

The Runnin’ Rebels, who finished the year 30-12, still haven’t advanced to nationals since losing in the 1926 American Legion World Series.

“I thought the kids played well. Unfortunately, you’re going to face teams that are just better than you and have more depth than you. We faced two solid teams,” Runnin’ Rebels coach Mikee Blackhawk said. “So all in all, I think it was a good experience for everyone involved.”

Especially, since they weren’t expected to be there in the first place.

Pocatello only returned three players from last year’s team, which went 37-11, came away with a state title and won at regionals for the first time in at least 35 years. The Runnin’ Rebels, who were filled with multiple future college players, went 2-2 at regionals a year ago.

“There were a few comments made to me early on before the season even started about how the season was going to go. There were a lot of people out there that thought we wouldn’t be as good as we were,” Blackhawk said. “I said, ‘Well, let’s just see what we got and we’ll put together the best lineup we can and we’ll go forth and we’ll do what we can.’”

It was more than enough.

The Runnin’ Rebels overcame a 3-4 start on their way to winning seven straight games to end the regular season, culminating with back-to-back state titles for the first time in 90 years.

They kept that momentum going early on Wednesday.

Kache Stucki handed them a 2-1 lead with his two-out, two-run single on a ground ball to right field in the top of the third inning. But that ended up being their only lead of the game.

Pocatello gave it right back the very next inning on one of its three errors and on a two-run blast over the left field wall. The deficit then ballooned to 8-2 going into the seventh and final inning after surrendering five runs in the fifth and sixth innings combined. Those came about on five Alaska hits, a walk and even a catcher’s interference call against the Runnin’ Rebels.

“That can’t happen. It’s going to be tough to come back against all seven of those teams in that tournament with us. They’re all pretty solid,” Blackhawk said. “You can get away with that against local teams, but teams like that, they capitalize on the mistakes you make.”

The Runnin’ Rebels did plate three runs in the seventh on RBI singles by Gunner Wilhelm, Hudson John and Stucki. But it wasn’t quite enough as the late comeback attempt ended on a foul tip by Hunter Hansen.

They also fought in an elimination game against Montana.

Pocatello hung with the regional champs for nearly five innings. It trailed just 1-0 heading into the bottom of the fifth inning.

“The kids battled from the first pitch to the last pitch,” Blackhawk said.

The Runnin’ Rebels were just simply outmatched, though.

They struck nine times and were no-hit as a team. That eventually caught up with them. Montana ended the game on a 7-0 run via the way of seven hits and three Pocatello walks in the fifth and sixth innings combined.

Stucki was the only player to register more than one hit between the two games. He finished with two and drove in three runs − all in the opener. Elias Blackhawk, Wilhelm and John had the Runnin’ Rebels’ only other base knocks of the tournament.