Loggers open season with Wood Bat Classic

The Libby Loggers opened the 2015 baseball season hosting the Loggertown Wood Bat Classic at Lee Gehring Field this past weekend. The Loggers lost their first two games, against Missoula and Strathmore, but came back on Sunday to drop Noxon.

The Loggers opened the tournament against the Pioneers of Missoula. 

The Loggers jumped out to an early lead in the first inning when lead-off batter Luke Haggerty grounded to third, but claimed first base on an errant throw. Dylon Lane then advanced Haggerty. Haggerty was batted in by Oliver Grupenhoff to give the Loggers a one-run lead after one.

Starting pitcher  Haggerty had a few rough patches in the early innings, but managed to pitch his way out of a couple of tight spots before giving up the mound to Braydan Thom in the fourth inning, where Missoula scored their first run to tie up the game.

The Loggers were held scoreless after the first inning, stranding several runners on base.

“From the plate, we had some good at-bats but we need to do a better job of keeping pressure on the defense by getting the ball in play on the ground,” team manager Kelly Morford said. “We had a few too many wasted at-bats but hitting is usually the last thing to come early in the season.”

The visiting Pioneers sealed the deal with a two-run eighth inning.

The Loggers ended their opener with one run on four hits, with four errors against the Pioneers’ three runs on seven hits with just one error.

In Saturday’s game against the Strathmore Reds the Loggers’ bats came alive, racking up three runs in the first inning, one in the second and three more in the fourth. The Loggers were in solid control for the first four innings of play, but the defense fell in the fifth and sixth, as the Reds fired off three runs in each inning to cinch a comeback win, 8-7.

Libby’s Jared Winslow batted in two runners on three hits to lead the Loggers.

In the final game of the weekend, the Loggers doubled up on Noxon in a 16-8 shootout.

Noxon opened up the scoreboard with one run in the top of the first, but the lead didn’t last long as the Loggers brought in three of their own to close out the inning. Libby’s boys added another four in the second and one more in the third to jump out to an 8-1 lead after three.

Noxon battled back with one run in the fourth, but the Loggers kept them at bay with two in the bottom of the inning to stretch the lead to 9-2. 

A five-run fifth inning started to resemble Strathmore’s comeback from the day before, but Logger bats responded in the bottom of the fifth with six runs, blowing the game open to 16-7. A single run by Noxon in the top of the sixth brought the game to a close at 16-8.

Morford was happy with his team’s opening performance.

“It was great to finally get out on the field and get some live action. We saw some good things but also had quite a few miscues, which is kind of expected early in the season. With some guys just getting back from college and kids in other spring sports, we hadn’t really had everyone together for a good set of practices so it will take a bit for everything to gel,” he said.

Morford said his team is coming together now, despite the late start, and he is looking forward to a strong season.

“Some of the older kids are shaking off some rust and we have a handful of other players that just don’t have a lot of game experience at this level,” Morford said. “We struggled with some of the reaction-type plays that come up in the flow of a game, but that will get better with time. We are a few weeks behind the rest of the teams as they have been playing for a couple of weeks, but we aren’t worried about that. We are more concerned with playing our best ball in July.”

The boys’ next game is at 6 p.m. tomorrow against Kalispell at home.