BFHS Head Baseball Coach
The Bonners Ferry Badger baseball team traveled to Spirit Lake on Saturday, April 18, to battle the Timberlake Tigers in a key Intermountain League baseball matchup last Saturday. The Badgers won the first game 13-3 in six innings, and lost the second 9-7. Their season record is 9-6 overall and 3-1 in the Intermountain League.
GAME 1
Junior Vince Bennett pitched a complete game, and did a great job striking out six while not walking a single batter, and allowing only four Tiger hits in a 13-3 win.
The Badgers scored seven runs in the first inning off five hits while chasing the Tiger starting pitcher in the inning. In the 3rd inning with two outs, the Badgers added two more runs after Brady Bateman, Caleb Blackmore and Steve Anzalone had back to back hits. Bonners Ferry added a run in the 5th and three more in the 6th inning after Anzalone hit a leadoff triple off the base of the right center field fence. He later scored on Jesse Dunham’s RBI single.
Steve Anzalone went 3 for 4 with three RBI, while Jesse Dunham and Caleb Gering each collected 2 hits in the game.
(Story continues below this photo)
GAME 2
The Badgers rattled off 14 hits in the game, but left 10 runners stranded as they lost the second game 9-7.
In the first inning, the Badgers scored after Brady Bateman walked and later scored on a RBI single by Steve Anzalone. The Tigers responded with two runs in the bottom half of the inning to take a 2-1 lead.
In the top of the 2nd, Bonners Ferry added another run when Caleb Gering scored on a RBI single from Jesse Dunham. Timberlake responded again with two more runs in their half of the inning to take a 4-2 lead.
In the top of the 4th inning, the Badgers scored two more runs when Jesse Dunham hit a RBI double and Anzalone hit a RBI single. But, the Tigers responded again with two runs of their own in their half to take a 6-4 lead.
After both teams went quietly in the 5th inning, the Badgers added two more runs in the top of the 6th to tie the game 6-6 after Bateman reached base on an error, and Dunham hit a single. Anzalone came up with his third hit in the game, scoring both Bateman and Dunham.
In the Tigers half of the 6th inning, relief pitcher Anzalone hit the first batter and walked the next batter. After a strike out, he loaded the bases only to have the Tigers score 3 runs to take a 9-6 lead heading into the 7th inning.
Bonners Ferry tried to stage a comeback when Nick Sabin was hit by a pitch and Caleb Blackmore hit a single to right scoring Sabin. With Blackmore at first and 2 outs, Bateman hit a double to left center which represented the tying run at second. The game ended on a strikeout to Dunham.
The Badgers were led by Dunham and Anzalone both getting 3 hits in the game, while Bateman and Chris Sabin each got 2 hits. Bateman, Dunham and Sabin each had a double.
The Badgers will celebrate Senior Day on Saturday, April 25, as they host the Kellogg Wildcats in an Intermountain League doubleheader. Please come out and honor the three seniors, Matt Gray, Shay Garcia and Steve Anzalone. First game starts at 11:00 a.m.