Loggers hope to keep on rolling at state

For the Libby American Legion baseball team, the road to the state tournament wasn’t exactly a smooth ride.

The Loggers struggled at times with a record much of the season below .500. Still, a lot of those early games were against Double-A teams and all the while, the Loggers continued to show improvement.

This weekend, Libby takes its season into August at the Class A State Tournament in Vauxhall, Alberta.

“We’ve just got to keep plugging away when we get behind … never quit to always have a chance,” second baseman Chris Herbig said.

The Loggers (25-23) proved on many occasions during the district tournament in Florence that they can come back. Even on championship game day against Bitterroot, Libby lost the first game by 10 runs but bounced back in the second game to find victory in 11 innings.

“That was probably the neatest thing about the district tournament, watching the guys get down and stay strong and not waiver,” Loggers coach Kelly Morford said. “It’s nice to know that if we get down in a game, we’re not going to panic and keep battling back.”

Pitcher/utility player Rory Hendrickson believes the team turned the corner when it beat Mission Valley late in the regular season a couple weeks back.

“They’re a pretty strong team, state champs last year, they walked through districts last year. Just to beat them, that’s when we started to click as a team,” Hendrickson said.

Libby opens the tournament on Saturday with a 10 a.m., meeting with Lethbridge. Win or lose, the Loggers would play again on Sunday in the double-elimination tourney. Games continue until Wednesday’s championship.

It’s the first state appearance for the Loggers since 2002 when they placed second.

Morford said Steve Bertelsen would probably get the start on Saturday. Bertelsen, Nate Peltier, Derek Benefield and Colton Cannon make up the pitching rotation. Hendrickson handles work out of the bullpen.

“We’ll probably start Stevie in the first game again just for the fact that he’s the one guy who can bounce back on two days’ rest and start another game for us,” Morford said. “The rest of the guys will probably get one start in but we’ll start Stevie so we can bring him back.”

Tournament rules limit pitchers to 12 innings or four appearances in three consecutive days.

“To win a ballgame, you need to have defense,” Hendrickson said. “The bats will come together but the strong defense is the key.”

The Libby “D” has steadily improved over the course of the season. Up the middle, Bertelsen at short and Herbig at second are solid.

“We’ve improved a lot from last year,” Bertelsen said. “It’s kind of nice having Chris there … you can always count on him.”

Morford believes his team is used to pressure situations and can avoid booting the ball.

“We’re pretty confident in our fielding and our outfielders can run and get some balls so that’s a solid part of the team, I believe,” Morford said.

Besides pitching and fielding, the Loggers have definitely flexed their muscle when it comes to hitting. Opponents don’t want to give Libby any help either. Just ask Mission Valley in districts when a couple of errors helped the Loggers erupt for 10 runs in one inning.

“We can start out an inning 8-9 (in the lineup) because that’s a good recipe for a rally,” Morford said. “We can hit up and down the lineup and we have speed so we feel we can score runs starting from anywhere.”

Dustin Morningstar has been one of the hottest hitters in the postseason with multi-hit games in several outings.

“Just listening to Coach Helbs (Jack Helber) and Coach Dave (Horelick) helping us out and giving us some good pointers on how to bat against these aces we’re facing nowadays,” Morningstar said about his hot streak. “I moved up from the nine spot to the eight spot. We’re keeping wheels at the bottom with me and Colton batting eight and nine.”

Both of those particular players caught the coach’s eye in districts – Morningstar at the plate and Cannon on the mound.

“Dustin Morningstar is a young guy that kind of grabbed that right field spot and moved up to the No. 3 hitter on the team for us in that tournament,” Morford said. “Colt Cannon on the hill in that last game got knocked down a bit the first three innings and shut them down and ended up going nine for us.”

Libby enters the tournament with no serious injuries. Benefield battled through bad shin splits at districts and some of his teammates have sore arms – not a surprise 48 games into a season.

So, what will it take to find success in Vauxhall?

“We need to keep the rallies going and definitely keep our bats going like we have,” Morningstar said. “We have a lot less errors on the field than we used to and everything’s coming together now.”