Yankees win Idaho championship

BONNERS FERRY — Bonners Ferry Little League players are making history this summer —first district champions, now state champions.

The team has gone the farthest any Little League team from Bonners Ferry has gone and they aren’t finished yet.

The 12- and 13-year-old Yankees are headed to Irvine, Calif., for the Western Regional Championships which begin Friday.

The Bonners Ferry Yankees play California on Friday at 12:30 p.m., then Arizona at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday. On Sunday, they play Oregon at 9 a.m. and on Wednesday, July 24, they play Hawaii at 9 a.m.

The top two teams advance to Thursday play against the other pool’s top two teams.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the kids,” said coach Cal Bateman. “We’re excited.”

The state championship game was one for the history books.

In the first inning, the Yankees gave up one run in the top of the first and in the bottom, went down 1-2-3 against the North Boise All Stars.

The Bonners Ferry Yankees gave up five more runs in the top of the second and trailed 6-0.

Starting pitcher Anthony Bennett injured his arm in the first inning and didn’t take the mound in the second.

The Yankees then turned to their youngest player on the team, Seth Bateman.

Seth struggled in the second, giving up five runs.

In the bottom half of the inning, the Yankees exploded with 10 runs. They sent 10 batters to the plate without recording their first out. Totaled in the inning, the Yankees combined for nine singles, one walk, and one hit by pitch.

North Boise All Stars scored two more in the top of the third, but the Yankees answered with four more runs of their own.

Brady Bateman started things off with a double, followed by an RBI single by Flint, Raul Rodriguez reached on an error by the third baseman and Tyrone Larson cleared the bases with a huge double to right center.

The Yankees held North Boise scoreless in the top of the fourth, thanks to a double play. With the leadoff hitter reaching on a single, Trey Flint snagged a line drive and stepped on first for the double play.

Seth Bateman made a great play on a line drive hit right back at him for the third out.

Yankees tacked on two more runs in the bottom of four on four consecutive singles by Brady Bateman, Trey Flint, Jesse Dunham, and Raul Rodriguez.

With bases loaded and one out Tyrone Larson hit a high pop fly to the third baseman.

All three umpires fail to call the infield fly rule, the third baseman dropped the ball and turned a double play to end the inning.

During the fifth inning, Kendall Stone made a great catch on a deep fly ball to right field for the first out, Raul Rodriguez threw the next guy out from second, and after a single, Rodriguez fielded another ground ball and recorded the third out at first.

In the bottom of the fifth with an opportunity to end the game with the 10 run rule, the Yankees loaded the bases with no outs.

Kobe Norwood singles to left to start things off, Pacen Pluid followed with a single of his own and Anthony Bennett reached on a error by the pitcher.

With bases juiced and the lead off hitter up it looked like the Yankees would finish the game right here. Seth Bateman ripped a deep line drive, but right at the left fielder.

Tagging all the way was Norwood from third, but he was thrown out at home by Brett Rene who made the best throw I have ever seen at this level,” said coach Bateman.

Brady Bateman followed with a fly ball to center to end the inning and what started out great ended in a hurry without a single run.

Still leading by eight, things went bad in a hurry in the sixth inning. After giving up a lead off single, Seth Bateman reached his pitch limit. The Yankees turned to Raul Rodriguez.

Raul came in and did exactly what was asked of him, he threw strikes. Unfortunately he did not receive much help from his teammates and after a few hits mixed in with a few errors and some bad bounces, North Boise had scored five runs and cut the lead to three.

The Yankees went down quickly in the bottom of the sixth, 1-2-3.

With the momentum clearly changed to North Boise, they put up four more in the top of seven to take a one run lead. Kobe Norwood came into relieve Rodriguez and recorded the final two outs of the inning.

After losing an eight-run lead the Yankees could have easily folded.

The players felt their great season slipping away and most of the players were fighting to keep back the tears.

But what has become normal for this team, they had one more great comeback in store.

Tyrone Larson lead things off with a line drive to center that nearly took the pitchers head off.

After a strike out for the first out, Pacen Pluid hit a ground ball to short, but the short stops throw to second was high and both runners were safe.

Anthony Bennett’s pop fly to short was the second out and the end was near. Seth Bateman entered the batters box and showed extreme patience as he drew a walk on four straight pitches.

Another story book ending was in the works, bases loaded, two outs, down by one and Brady Bateman stepped to the plate. Coach Bateman called time to go talk to his son.

The conversation later related by Brady to his mother went something like this: “Dad told me that this situation is why we play baseball, but regardless of what happens here he loves me.....but since you’re here you might as well get a hit.”

Brady complied after working a 2-2 count, hitting the game-winning double to left center just out of reach of the center fielder.

Tyrone Larson scored the tying run and Pacen Pluid raced in from second with the winning run.

Of course there was a big mob pile and the emotions from the players and coaches could not be held back any longer.

“You would have thought we lost the game with all the crying that was going on. It was the neatest experience to watch these kids celebrate,” said Coach Bateman.

“We were never supposed to be here, but here we are and we are going to the western regionals in California to represent the state of Idaho. We just can’t believe it.”

The community has been great, the amount of phone calls, messages, texts has been absolutely incredible said Bateman. Many people are making great efforts to help the Yankees raise the money needed for their trip.

Anyone wanting to help the Yankees, can make donations to Panhandle State Bank under Boundary County Little League. For questions, contact Cal Bateman 208-627-3405.

“Thank you Bonners Ferry, we feel your support,” said Bateman. “We have an amazing community who has proven themselves over and over what great lengths they will go to support the kids.”

Follow the Western Regional Championship results at http://www.littleleague.org/worldseries/series/5070/qualify/west.htm

Batting AB R H RBI BB SO

S. Bateman 5-2-1-1-1-1

B. Bateman 6-3-5-5-0-0

T. Flint 5-2-3-3-0-0

J. Dunham 5-3-4-1-0-0

R. Rodriguez 5-2-2-1-0-0

T. Larson 5-2-3-4-0-0

K. Norwood 3-1-1-0-0-1

P. Pluid 5-2-3-2-0-0

A. Bennett 3-1-0-1-1-1

K. Stone 1-0-0-0-0-1

Totals 43-18-22-18-2-4

Pitching IP H R ER BB SO

A. Bennett 1-2-1-1-1-1

S. Bateman 4-10-8-6-3-2

R. Rodriguez 1.1-6-8-7-1-0

K. Norwood 0.2-0-0-0-1-1

Totals 7-18-17-14-6-4