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Badger Baseball Claims 3-A Idaho State
Championship |
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May 23, 2018 |
(EDITOR'S NOTE: Our NewsBF Facebook
page was busy all day on Saturday with updates
and reports on three state tournamnents
involving the Bonners Ferry Badgers, those
updates being seen and followed by many, many
thousands of Badger fans in Boundary County and
around the USA. We are happy to present
Coach Turpin's account of the Badger state
baseball championship and how the Badgers did it
in this story).
by Tom Turpin
Head Coach, BFHS Varsity Baseball
The Bonners Ferry Badgers Baseball Team finally
reached the top of the mountain by claiming the
3-A State Baseball Championship this past
weekend in the tournament played in Ontario,
Oregon. This is the first baseball championship
for Bonners Ferry in their 25 year history, and
the first 3-A title from the North since 1997
when Lakeland was in our league.
GAME 1 –
Bonners Ferry 5, Payette 1
In what many thought would be the championship
game for the 3-A title prior to seeding, the
Badgers beat the Pirates in the first game of
the tournament 5 – 1.
Senior Will Parr pitched a complete game taking
a no hitter into the bottom of the 7th inning
where a pair of infield singles broke up his no
hit bid. Parr pitched fabulously, giving up only
two hits while striking out eight batters with
no walks through seven complete innings.
The Badgers started the scoring in the top of
the 2nd inning when senior Mason Eby singled to
right field and then advanced to second on the
throw. Sophomore Ty Bateman laid down a
beautiful sacrifice bunt to advance Eby to third
and pitcher Will Parr helped himself by singling
in Eby on a hit to right field.
The Badgers added another run in the top of the
4th inning when Ty Bateman hit a double to right
followed by another great sacrifice bunt by
Seamus Skeen, advancing Ty Bateman to third with
one out. Parr, again, hit a hard ground ball to
third base and reached on an error while scoring
Bateman on the play.
In the top of the 6th inning, Parr hit a two out
double to center field and senior Brady Bateman
followed with an RBI single scoring Parr. Junior
Seth Bateman then singled to center field
putting the Bateman brothers at first and
second. After an hour and a half rain/lightning
delay, senior Shayne Walker resumed action with
a huge two strike smash, doubling to center
field and scoring both Batemans and putting the
Badgers up 5 – 0.
In Payette’s last at bat in the bottom of the
7th inning, they kept their hopes alive getting
their first two hits, a pair of infield singles.
With no outs and runners on first and second,
the next batter grounded into a double play and
Parr retired the next batter on a ground out to
end the game.
Will Parr was the Idahosports.com Player of the
Game with his phenomenal performance on the
mound while going 2 for 3 with two RBI’s at the
plate.
Hits: Brady Bateman, Seth Bateman-3, Shayne
Walker, Chris Sabin, Jared Fess-2, Mason Eby, Ty
Bateman, Will Parr-2
2B: Seth Bateman, Ty Bateman, Shayne Walker,
Will Parr
RBI: Brady Bateman, Shayne Walker-2, Will Parr-2
SAC: Seamus Skeen, Ty Bateman, Mason Eby
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GAME 2 –
Bonners Ferry 19, Kimberly 12
The Badgers scored 9 runs on 8 hits in the first
inning, but the Kimberly Bulldogs scratched
their way back into the game that ended up in a
crazy 19-12 victory for the Badgers.
In a first for Coach Tom Turpin, the Badgers
started off the game with the first four batters
hitting for the cycle. Brady Bateman started the
game off with a single followed by a Seth
Bateman double followed by a Shayne Walker
triple, then capped off with a towering two run
home run to left center by Chris Sabin giving
the Badgers a quick 4-0 lead. The hits kept
coming as the first seven batters got hits and
the first 11 Badgers to the plate reached base
without recording an out. When the top of the
first inning finally ended, the Badgers led 9-0
on eight hits, two walks, and one hit by pitch.
Kimberly was not going to go away quietly as
they scored three runs in the bottom of the
first inning. The Badgers added two runs in the
top of the 4th inning after Jared Fess reached
on an error and later scored on a wild pitch.
Mason Eby then hit a single and later scored on
another wild pitch. Kimberly then put up three
more runs in their half of the inning to put the
score 11-6. In the bottom of the 5th inning
Kimberly added five more runs to tie the game
11-11. Both teams went quietly in the 6th
inning. With a berth to the state championship
game on the line and pressure mounting, the
Badgers nearly repeated the first inning,
exploding for eight more runs on nine hits to
put the game away in the final inning.
Chris Sabin came in relief for the Badgers to
get the victory and was named the
Idahosports.com Player of the Game.
Hits: Brady Bateman-2, Seth Bateman-4, Shayne
Walker-2, Chris Sabin-2, Jared Fess-2, Mason
Eby-3, Ty Bateman-2, Seamus Skeen, Will Parr
2B: Seth Bateman, Chris Sabin
3B: Shayne Walker
HR: Chris Sabin
RBI: Brady Bateman-3, Seth Bateman, Chris
Sabin-3, Ty Bateman, Shayne Walker-3, Jared
Fess, Will Parr, Mason Eby
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GAME 3 –
STATE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME – Bonners Ferry 4,
Homedale 2
The Badgers claimed their first 3-A Baseball
State Championship in their 25 year history and
first for a North Idaho team since the Lakeland
Hawks won in our classification back in 1997.
The Badgers started off where they left off in
game two by scoring two runs in the top half of
the first inning. Brady Bateman hit a single to
start the game, Seth Bateman reached on an error
by the second baseman, Shayne Walker walked to
load the bases, Chris Sabin then hit a sacrifice
fly to left center to score Brady Bateman, Jared
Fess hit a single advancing Seth Bateman, and
then Mason Eby scored Seth on a fielder’s choice
to put the Badgers up early 2-0.
Shayne Walker started on the mound for the
Badgers scattering four hits in six innings
while striking out eight and walking two in what
was Shayne’s best pitching performance as a
Badger.
A scary moment occurred at the end of the 4th
inning as the Badgers were preparing to bat in
the 5th. As the Homedale infield was warming up
an errant throw came into the dugout and hit
Walker in the face right below his right eye
dropping him to the ground. While he was laying
still on the ground being attended to by medical
personnel, the question remained whether he
would be cleared to come back in the game. After
about a 10 minute delay, Walker was cleared and
pitched another two innings for the Badgers.
The Badgers added a run in the top of the 5th
inning after Sabin singled to left and advanced
to second on a critical sacrifice bunt by Jared
Fess. With one out, Ty Bateman came up big again
in the tournament by lining a double down the
left field line scoring Sabin.
The Badgers added an insurance run in the top of
the 7th inning when Sabin was hit by a pitch and
Fess, again, came up with a huge sacrifice bunt
to advance Sabin to second. Mason Eby hit a hard
ground ball and reached on an error that allowed
Sabin to advance to third base. Ty Bateman hit a
sacrifice fly to right field scoring Sabin again
and put the Badgers up 4 – 0 going into the
bottom of the 7th.
With the three outs remaining for the Trojans,
the first batter of the inning reached on a
single, Walker reaching his maximum pitch count
for the day then gave way to Chris Sabin to
finish the game. Sabin notched the crucial first
out by striking out the first batter he faced,
but walked the second and third batters loading
the bases with one out.
The Trojans then scored their first run of the
game when Sabin was called for a balk, allowing
the baserunners to advance. With the score 4 - 1
and runners on second and third, the Trojans
scored another run on an infield single when
Stoddard beat out the throw to first base to cut
the Badgers lead to 4-2, but they picked up
their second out of the inning in exciting
fashion when Homedale’s Packer was thrown out at
the plate by Shayne Walker as he was attempting
to score from second on the same play.
Needing only one more out to create Badger
history, Chris Sabin took care of business
himself as he got the next batter to hit a lazy
pop up that he caught at the pitcher’s mound for
the final out and the celebration began! The
Badgers are forever STATE CHAMPIONS!
Shayne Walker was selected as the
Idahosports.com Player of the Game.
The Badgers batted .390 in the three games at
State while collecting 37 hits, nine of which
were extra base hits, and scored 30 runs. The
biggest factor was six sacrifice plays at the
plate during the tournament which showed the
selflessness of the Badger players.
Seth Bateman led the team in batting average
going 7 for 11 (.636), Brady Bateman went 6 for
10 (.600), Jared Fess 5 for 11 (.454) while
Chris Sabin, Mason Eby and Ty Bateman hit .364
for the team.
Bonners Ferry will graduate 11 seniors and
return only 2 starting players for next year.
With the loss of the seniors, it will be a new
team but the same dream!
GO BADGERS!!!
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