Mariners, Libby advance at district
The Daily Inter Lake
FLORENCE - Beau Nordberg hit an RBI triple with two outs in the top of the 10th as the Mission Valley Mariners barely survived a run-in with the Kalispell Lakers 'A' 1-0 at the American Legion district tournament Thursday night.
The Mariners, defending state champions, will play the winner of the Kootenai Valley Rangers/Bitterroot Bucs at 6 p.m. tonight.
The Mariners had seven hits on the day, while Kalispell had 10.
Top hitters for Mission Valley were John Rausch, 2-for-4 with a double and Kyle Bagnell, also 2-for-4.
The Lakers had 10 hits. Michael O'Connel was 2-for-5 with a double and Joe Pistorese was 3-for-5.
The Libby Loggers also advanced witha 8-5 win over the Missoula Mavs 'A.'
The Loggers registered 17 hits, but stranded 13 baserunners, including 10 in scoring position.
"We hit the ball really well. We just didn't do that with runners in scoring position," said coach Kelly Morford.
"It wasn't our best performance by far, but it was good enough to win. We battled through," he added.
Steve Bertelsen, Colt Cannon and Ryan Stapley had three hits apiece for the Loggers.
Rory Hendickson retired all seven batters he faced to pick up the save.
The Loggers take on the Bitteerroot Red Sox at 3 p.m. today.
Loggers 8, Mavs 5
Libby 120 004 001 - 8 17 2
Missoula 001 012 100 - 5 7 2
Steve Bertelsen, Rory Hendickson 7 and Matt Schad. Schmantz, Daugherity (4) and Seeberger, Schafer (4).
Libby - Chris Herbig 2-5,Steve Bertelsen 3-5, Rory Hendrickson 3-6, Matt Schad 1-4, Ryan Stapley 3-5, Nate Peltier 1-3, Derek Benefield 0-4, Dustin Morningstar 1-5, Colt Cannon 3-4.
2B - Herbig, Hendrickson 2
RBIs - Herbig 1, Bertelsen 1, Stapley 1 Benefield 1, Cannon 1, Schad 2.
Missoula - Laporte 2-4, Rob King 0-3, Miller 0-5, Schmantz 0-5, Bewley 1-5, Seeberger 0-2, Daugherity 0-2, Riley King 1-3, Breckenridge 0-2, Davshaver 1-2, Schafer 2-3.
2B - Bewley.
RBIs - Laporte 2, Miller 1.
Mariners 1, Kalispell 0 10 innings
Mariners 000 000 000 1 - 1 7 2
Kalispell 000 000 000 0 - 0 10 0
John Rausch, Spencer Trawick (6), Kyle Bagnell (8) and Tim Rausch. Joe Pistorese, Mat O'Brien (9) and Greg Seaman. W - Bagnell.
Mission Valley - John Rausch 2-4, Eric Locke 1-4, Tim Rausch 0-5, Tyler Linse 1-5, Beau Nordberg 1-4, Nick Fell 0-1, Craig Bagnell 0-4, Austin Moran 0-3, Brandon Roy 0-0, Kyle Bagnell 2-4.
2B - John Rausch
3B - Beau Nordberg.
RBI - Nordberg 1
Kalispell - Blaine Matulevich 1-5, Joe Pistorese 3-5, Michael O'Connell 2-5, Greg Seaman 0-3, Mat O'Brien 1-5, Shawn Moody 1-4, Chris Calles 1-4, Tanner Salois 0-3, Tyler Schwenke 1-3, Britt Block 0-1.
2B - O'Connell.