CALDWELL — As Mountain View head coach Justin Schneidt put it, their matchup with Eagle in the 5A state baseball quarterfinals was a David vs. Goliath affair. The Mustangs, the No. 1 seed in the tournament, entered Thursday with just three losses on the season and won the 5A District III title.
Meanwhile, the Mavericks had to play in back-to-back elimination games to reach the state tournament. They defeated Madison in Twin Falls last Saturday in the state play-in game and earned the No. 8 seed. At one point this season, Mountain View endured a stretch of six losses in seven games.
Fast forward to Thursday afternoon, they sit one game away from a state championship appearance.
The Mavericks leaned into their underdog status, upsetting Eagle 5-3 to advance to the semifinals. After losing to the Mustangs 9-0 in the regular season, they flipped the script in the postseason.
Mountain View (17-10) didn’t shy away from the top team in the state. They took an early lead, fell behind late and scored the go-ahead run in the final inning.
“Everybody was talking about Eagle this and Eagle that,” Schneidt said. “Mountain View has Will Grizzle. Well Mountain View has a lot more than Will Grizzle. He is our leader but we have Conner Marshall and we have a group of guys that are hungry.”
The University of Oregon-commit gets most of the attention from opponents, but it was the other seniors on the team that had the biggest impact in the game. Evan Perry delivered the go-ahead hit in the top of the seventh inning with a RBI-single. Cade Burnham scored on the play as well with an error at third base. That gave Mountain View a 5-3 lead going into the final frame.
In the top of the second, Patrick Judge put the Mavericks on the board first with a two-RBI single. On the mound, Conner Marshall pitched a complete game with nine strikeouts.
It was the senior class stepping up in the big moment.
“The grind of those seniors, I love it,” Schneidt said. “Those are guys who have been here for three years in state tournament play. That experience is what we’re leaning on.”
Bryson Shea hit a two-run double in the third inning for Eagle (21-4) to tie the game. They then took a 3-2 lead in the fifth on an RBI-single from Zach Johansen. But like Middleton earlier in the day, their promising season will end without a state title.
Mountain View will face Rocky Mountain in the semifinals Friday at 4 p.m..
OWYHEE 7, HIGHLAND 4: The Storm had to bleed through some of their pitching staff, but you can never be too safe in the state tournament.
Lucas Skinner got the start for Owyhee (22-2) but only made it through 1 ⅓ innings. After allowing a run in the first inning and walking in another in the second, the Storm’s ace Kaleb Doty entered the game with the bases loaded to settle things down. He held Highland (21-7) to one more run in the inning.
Owyhee faced an early 3-1 deficit and needed their offense to produce. The bats came alive in the bottom of the fourth where the Storm scored three runs. Christian Zannitto, Keagan Kelly and Ryder Cutlip all contributed an RBI, while Ryan Burbank scored on a wild pitch. They batted around in the frame to take a 5-3 lead.
It’s the production they needed with Doty pitching in the game. Since he threw 66 pitches against the Rams, he’ll be ineligible to pitch for the remainder of the tournament. Per state tournament rules, any pitcher that throws over 60 pitches is required to take the next two days off.
Owyhee head coach Russ Wright didn’t have any reservations about using the top pitcher on his staff. Doty holds a 1.41 in 34.2 innings pitched after Thursday’s game.
“It seemed like there was momentum building on him,” Wright said. “Normally he can throw a pretty good hammer. The hammer wasn’t as good today. That’s just baseball. Kaleb can spin that breaking ball and when the arm is fresh, that fastball will jump. It got to the point at the end where we felt like he ran out of steam. We weren’t going to play around.”
Doty threw 4 ⅔ innings, allowing one run and striking out six.
Owyhee added two more insurance runs in the bottom of the fifth with RBI from Zannitto and Cutlip. With Highland adding another run in the sixth, Nathan Keith came in on the mound for the final inning to record the save, his fifth of the season.
Owyhee will play either No. 3 Lake City or No. 6 Coeur d’Alene in the semifinals tomorrow at 6:30 p.m..
Local News
Comments / 0