Loggers win district title; advance to state tourney Thursday

Scared straight.

If the Libby Loggers didn’t believe the old adage before their district tournament began, they may believe it now. Certainly, their fans do.

On Sunday afternoon, the Loggers captured a second consecutive American Legion Western District Baseball Championship with a 10-4 victory over the Missoula Mavericks to advance to the Class A State Tournament beginning Thursday in Polson. Joining the Loggers in the state tourney will be the Mission Valley Mariners by virtue of their hosting the tourney.

The Loggers will play in the first game of the state tourney, at 9 a.m. Thursday against a MacLeod, Alberta, team that features a 30th-round draft pick by the New York Mets.

“We’re sure to see him,” Morford said Sunday evening after learning the Loggers’ initial rival in the double-elimination tourney.

Who would have figured the Loggers’ biggest challenge in Districts would come against their lowest-seeded rival of the tourney, the fourth-seeded Bitterroot Red Sox, in their opening game.

Top seed in the North Division, the Loggers fell behind the Sox 7-1 and stayed there until the seventh inning when — with the aid of six Sox errors in the frame — they erupted for nine runs to erase the deficit, and eventually posted the 10-7 victory.

With that vivid lesson as inspiration, Loggers never trailed an opponent again for the duration of the tournament as they outpitched and outhit their rivals.

The fact the Loggers never trailed again was on Morford’s mind during the game Sunday.

“I was thinking about that in the first (inning) when we scored that first run,” recalled Morford who coaches third base. “It’s nice that we can get the lead and take a little pressure off.”

Unlike that first game of the tourney, the Loggers needed no come-from-behind heroics to remain undefeated during the four-day American Legion baseball extravaganza that featured eight teams in double-elimination competition.

They were only threatened again in their second game, against Kalispell, when the  Lakers loaded the bases trailing by three runs.

“It was too close for me,” Morford admitted afterward, thinking a worst-case scenario of a grand slam that could’ve spelled defeat.

Instead, after that first-round, come-from-behind victory that had other teams buzzing of what could be and Logger fans wondering why their team’s offense suddenly suffered from anemia, the local nine took matters into their own hands and simply got out front first and stayed there.

And remained there.

• Game 1 Thursday: Loggers 10, Bitterroot Red Sox 7;

• Game 2 Friday: Loggers 8, Kalispell Lakers 5;

• Game 3 Saturday: Loggers 7, Mission Valley 1;

• Game 4 Sunday: Loggers 10; Missoula Mavericks 4;

Because of their top seed, the Loggers played the minimum number of games, unlike the Mavs who fought their way back to the championship game by playing six, posting a 4-2 record and playing an earlier game Sunday.

“We had a good season,” said Mavs coach David Feeley, in his sixth season. “It’s not our best season, but our best since 2005.

“I think we just ran out of gas. They’re tired, but I’m proud of them,” Feeley said. “We battled back a little. It was 10-0, and we made a run at them.

“These kids are all 14, 15 and 16 years old. We’re a feeder program for our double-A club, so the progress we make this year, our 16 and older players move up,” Feeley said.

The Mavs end their season at 43 and 24.

In the Loggers’ opening game against the Red Sox, it was a lesson of perseverance — for both teams, a fact not wasted on Sox coach B.J. Idhe.

“I hate like heck to give a ballgame away, and that’s what we did tonight,” Idhe said after Thursday’s 10-7 loss.

“We’re up 7-1 in the seventh and give the ballgame away, that just should not happen. I think they had three hits at that point. Yes, our pitcher (Trevor Brown) deserved better. He threw a heck of a game against a good Logger ballclub.”

In that comeback inning, the Loggers scored  nine runs on five hits but were aided by six errors. Backup shortstop Drew Zeiler had an inning to forget with three errors. The Loggers also were aided by an obstruction on the catcher and errors by both the first and second basemen.

“It gave us a chance to come back,” Morford said of the Sox’ miscues.

In Sunday’s finale, the Loggers scored one run in the first, four in the second and five in the third to take a 10-0 lead and then coasted to victory.

The Mavs managed four runs off a Loggers team that seemed resolved a victory was within reach.

In fact, late in the game after the Loggers committed a couple of errors, Morford called a meeting on the mound. The sermon worked as the Loggers quickly recovered and halted whatever hopes the Mavs had of coming back.

The hitting star was Justin Wicka who went 3-for-5 with four RBIs that included a three-run home run over the left-center field fence.

“It was an 0-0 count,” Wicka recalled. “A fastball, inside.”

“Yeah, it was my biggest hit of the season,” Wicka admitted afterward. “I’ve got five homers now, but this is the biggest.”

Asked about the comeback over the Red Sox, Wicka said he was not surprised the Loggers rallied.

“I never doubted us,” he said. “I never felt like we couldn’t do it. We captured the momentum and just went with it.”

Morford credited Wicka for scoring the first run and then the big hit.

“Wicka’s hit was the game-changer. That gave us a little breathing room,” Morford said.

And, then, the Loggers never looked back.