Badgers beat Tigers to finish perfect in IML baseball
The Badger baseball team completed their first ever perfect season in Intermountain League history by beating the Timberlake Tigers 9-5 Tuesday.
The win improves their overall record to 19-2 with a 9-0 league record going into the District tournament next Monday.
“This is memorable, these guys are a fantastic group of kids,” said Badgers Head Coach Tom Turpin. “They worked really hard to get where we’re at. It shows a lot of characyer for them to continue to work hard and achieve an undefeated league season. But quite honestly, when Monday rolls around, the record doesn’t mean anything. We just need to defend our league title, win districts, and get down to Boise to represent North Idaho.”
The Badgers will face Kellogg to open the district tournament on Monday. It’s a team Bonners Ferry has had their way with this season, but Turpin said when it comes to tournament time, you take it one game at a time.
“We’re not going to look past anyone, especially this time of year,” Turpin said. “Every team is 0-0 right now. We have to beat Kellogg, and hopefully we can take care of business on Tuesday, so we don’t have to worry about the rest of the week. We’re not going to overlook any team.”
One thing Turpin and the Badgers are looking forward to is having home-field advantage on Monday.
“To me, it’s a reward for the team’s hard work this season,” Turpin said. “It’s also good for our fan base. It allows them to see their hometown team play one last time before the potential of a state tournament visit. I hope we get a great turn out.”
First pitch Monday against Kellogg is scheduled for 4 p.m.
GAME 1 – BONNERS FERRY 13 KELLOGG 5
Senior Vince Bennett improved his overall record to 7-0 while striking out 13 and walking two batters in a complete game.
The Badgers struck for four runs in the first inning after the leadoff hitter, Jesse Dunham reached on a walk and Bennett singled to center. After consecutive wild pitches from the Wildcat pitcher to score Dunham, Caleb Gering scored Bennett on a ground out. Caleb Blackmore was hit by a pitch and later scored on Nick Sabin’s RBI single. Sabin later scored on a RBI single from Kevin Gray. The Badgers added a run in the top half of the second when Raul Rodriguez started the inning off with a single and later scored on a ground out.
Kellogg tied the game up 5 – 5 in the fifth inning after scoring two runs in the bottom of the third, a lone run in the fourth and two more in the fifth inning. The Badgers then scored seven runs in the top of the sixth inning on four hits and three errors. Bonners Ferry added a lone run in the seventh inning on Rodriguez’s second hit of the game to make the final score 13-5
Badger hits: Dunham (2B), Bennett, Blackmore – 2, Nick Sabin – 2, Stockton, Gray, Chris Sabin, Rodriguez - 2
GAME 2 – BONNERS FERRY 19 KELLOGG 6 (5 Innings)
The Badgers jumped out to another early four run lead and cruised to a 19-6 win in 5 innings over Kellogg. Senior Caleb Blackmore pitched a complete game to improve his record to 2 – 0.
Jesse Dunham started the game off with a single followed by four consecutive walks. Chris Sabin then hit a 2 run single to left. Bonners Ferry added two more runs in the second inning highlighted by Blackmore’s RBI single to right field to make the score 6 – 0. The Wildcats cut the lead to 6 – 4 in their half of the second scoring four runs on four hits and two Badger errors. Kellogg wouldn’t go away in the third inning and narrowed the lead to 6 – 5 when they scored a lone run on a hit and another Badger error.
The Badgers took control of the game in the fourth inning scoring four runs on only one hit and two walks.
In the top of the fifth inning, Bonners Ferry scored nine runs on just three hits and five Wildcat errors to make the final score 19 – 6.
Dunham and Blackmore each had two hits with Blackmore hitting a double and 3 RBI. Kevin Gray also had 3 RBI in the game.
Badger hits: Dunham – 2, Bennett, Blackmore – 2 (2B), Gray, Chris Sabin, Rodriguez,
The Badgers travel to Timberlake on Tuesday to finish their IML league schedule and next Friday to Newport to finish the regular season. The IML District tournament will be hosted by Bonners Ferry with the top seeded Badgers taking on the fourth seed in league on Monday, May 9th at 4pm.
BONNERS FERRY 9 TIMBERLAKE 5
The Badgers pounded out five runs on seven hits in the top of the first inning and scattered four more runs throughout the game to secure the 9-5 win over the Tigers.
Senior Caleb Blackmore started off the inning with a single to left followed by back to back singles from Vince Bennett and Jesse Dunham. Senior Caleb Gering then pounded a 2 run triple to deep left center to score Bennett and Dunham. With one out in the inning, junior Kaleb Stockton hit a RBI triple of his own to score Gering. Junior Kevin Gray then followed up with a RBI single to score Stockton.
The Badgers added a run in the top of the third to make the score 6-0 on a RBI single from Dunham. The Tigers responded with two runs in the bottom half of the third on one hit and a Badger error to narrow the lead to 6-2. Bonners Ferry added two runs in the top of the fourth when Stockton hit a double to left center and Gray followed up with a single. Junior Raul Rodriguez scored both of them on a 2 run double to make the score 8-2.
Timberlake responded again by scoring two runs with two outs in the inning aided by another Badger error and two hits making the score 8-4. Both teams went scoreless in the fifth inning but Timberlake narrowed the lead in the bottom of the sixth scoring a single run to make the score 8-5. Bonners Ferry added a run in their half of the seventh after Gering walked and later scored on a wild pitch. Bennett, coming in relief for pitcher Dunham, struck out the last two batters to end the game.
Jesse Dunham got the win improving his record to 6-0 while Bennett came in relief in the sixth inning.
Badger hits: Blackmore, Bennett – 2, Dunham – 2, Gering – 2 (3B), Nick Sabin, Stockton – 2 (2B, 3B), Brady Bateman, Gray – 2, Rodriguez – 3, Chris Sabin