Seasons end early for WRHS ball teams

Rough rides at district

Two-and-out tournament endings to the 2012 season weren't the outcomes sought by the young and inexperienced Wood River High School baseball and softball teams.

Yet that's what happened last week to wrap up the Wolverine spring campaigns—seasons marked by injuries to the softball team and struggles on offense for the baseball squad.

Burley stuns softball team

It was a painful ending for Wood River and a pleasant surprise for the Burley Bobcats when the two teams clashed Saturday afternoon in a loser-out contest of the Great Basin Conference softball tournament at Twin Falls High School.

Winless in 23 games and coming off a three-game sweep by Wood River just three days before, No. 6-seeded Burley jumped to a 5-1 lead after three innings and capitalized on 11 Wolverine errors to post a 14-7 triumph that ousted the No. 4-seeded Hailey girls (9-15).

Senior Haylee Thompson belted three of the six Wood River hits and scored three times, but Burley out-hit the Wolverines 12-6 and put it away with a five-run seventh frame.

Earlier Saturday in the opening round, the No. 5-seeded Minico Spartans jumped to a strong 6-0 lead after two innings and held on for a 7-2 win.

Wolverine junior slugger Sydney Tidwell popped a solo homer to finally get the Hailey girls on the scoreboard in the sixth. It was Tidwell's sixth homer of the season, which is a new school record for homers.

Minico (7-15) hosted Burley (1-23) on Tuesday in a loser-out game, that winner meeting No. 3-seeded Canyon Ridge (16-7) later Tuesday on the Twin Falls diamond. Also clashing Tuesday were the two unbeaten teams—two-time defending champion Jerome (15-5) and top-seeded Twin Falls (19-3).

Wood River finished with a .317 team batting average but committed 101 errors on defense. Top hitter was Tidwell (.444 batting average, .864 slugging, 36 hits, 33 runs, 27 RBI).

Other top hitters were seniors Thompson (.373, .627 slugging, 18 RBI) and Devan Atkinson (.357, 4 HR, 26 RBI). Freshman pitcher Brittney Bradley (7-12, 4.95 ERA, 75 K, 49 BB) worked 111 innings this year.

Baseball team bows out

The No. 6-seeded Wood River Wolverines (1-23) got an early start on their summer baseball season with two losses during the GBC tournament last week.

No. 3-seeded Jerome Tigers (10-8) blanked Wood River 9-0 on May 1 in the opening round of the six-school meet. And No. 4-seeded Burley (9-16) run-ruled the Wolverines 19-3 Thursday.

Minico's Spartans earned a spot in the GBC championship game Monday with a 13-3 home win over No. 5-seeded Canyon Ridge of Twin Falls (9-16). The Riverhawks ended up winning three games in the tourney.

Top-seeded defending State 4A champion Twin Falls (21-3) hosted last year's conference king Minico (16-9) in Tuesday's title game. A 9-8 loser to Twin Falls Saturday, Minico needed two wins over 2010 league champ Twin to claim its seventh GBC crown in eight years.

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.