Badgers sweep Priest River, take over second place in IML

Game one – Bonners Ferry  2,  Priest River  1  (8 innings)

A great pitching duel between Spartan pitcher Kyle Bradbury and Badger Austin Wilson took place last night with Bonners Ferry prevailing 2 – 1 in eight innings.

Both pitchers struck out 11 batters each while only walking two in what was a fantastic pitching matchup.  Bradbury hit a home run in the bottom of the second inning to give the Spartans a 1–0 lead early and Badger senior Alek Lopez hit his first high school home run in the top of the fifth inning to tie the game 1–1. 

In the bottom of the seventh inning, Priest River threatened when Sean Mortenson started off the inning with a single to center.  With the bases loaded and no outs, Wilson proceeded to strike out the next three batters in the inning to end the scoring threat.

In the top of the eighth inning, Wilson started off  with a double to center and advanced on Dan Mayzel’s sacrifice bunt. Wilson scored on senior Brian Moore’s single to left.

Wilson retired the Spartan’s in the bottom of the eighth to end the game.  Wilson pitched a three hitter while Lopez, Moore and Alex Awbrey all got three hits.

Game two – Bonners Ferry  10,  Priest River  7  (8 innings)

Badger pitcher Dan Mayzel struck out 13 batters while giving up only five hits in a 10 – 7 extra inning win for the Badgers. 

Austin Wilson hit his first home run of the year in the top of the first inning to take an early lead 1–0.  The lead evaporated quickly in the bottom of the second when the Badgers gave up five unearned runs to go behind quickly 5–1.

Bonners Ferry responded with four runs in the top half of the fifth inning when freshman Ben Neumeyer walked, Lopez reached on an error, Mayzel walked to load the bases and Brian Moore hit a two run single. 

Moore and Mayzel later scored on singles from Awbrey and junior Josiah Owinyo.

The Badgers added a run in the top of the sixth inning when Neumeyer again walked and later scored on Wilson’s RBI double. 

In the top of the seventh inning, Bonners Ferry added another run to take a 7–5 lead when Moore reached on an error and later scored on Sean Conlin’s RBI single. Priest River responded with a two runs in the bottom of the seventh when Sean Mortenson hit a two run home run over the left field fence to tie the game. 

The Badger’s added three runs in the eighth inning when Lopez walked, Wilson hit his second double of the game and Mayzel singled scoring Lopez.  Moore then hit a two run double scoring Wilson and Mayzel. Priest River went scoreless in the bottom of the eigth inning to give the Badgers a sweep.

Wilson went four for eight with three doubles, three RBI and three runs scored while Moore went four for eight. Alex Awbrey went four for seven in the two games.

Badgers swept by Tigers

The Badger baseball team lost a pair of critical games last Saturday to Timberlake giving up first place to the Tigers.

Game one – Bonners Ferry  3,  Timberlake  4   (10 innings)

Timberlake pitcher Tyler Shaffer pitched nine innings scattering six hits before being relieved in the 10th inning. 

Shaffer scored the first and last runs for Timberlake as they edged Bonners Ferry in 10 innings 4-3. 

Shaffer hit a single in the bottom of the first inning and later scored on an error.  Bonners Ferry responded in the top of the third with two runs after senior Dan Mayzel hit a double and junior Alex Awbrey reached on a error.  Both scored on senior Sean Conlin’s two run single. 

Timberlake retook the lead in the bottom of the fourth with two runs and then Bonners Ferry tied it up in the top half of the fifth when senior Brian Moore reached on an error and later scored on a RBI double from Mayzel.

The game was scoreless until the bottom of the 10th Timberlake’s Shaffer reached on an error and advanced on a stolen base to second.  He then advanced to to third on a passed ball.  With two outs in the bottom of the inning, the Bonners Ferry pitcher was called on a balk and Shaffer advanced to home for the winning run.

Game two – Bonners Ferry  0,  Timberlake  7

The Badgers could not bounce back after their deflating loss earlier and Timberlake swept the Badgers to take over first place in IML.

The Badgers could not muster a single run and was held to just two hits by Tiger’s pitcher J.D. Page. 

The Badgers dropped to third in the IML with a 5-4 record while Timberlake advanced to first place with a 6–2 record in league.

The District tournament will be held at Timberlake high school May 13.