Badgers sweep Kellogg Wildcats in IML Baseball, locking up second straight league title

May 4, 2016

The Badger baseball team swept the Kellogg Wildcats on Saturday to claim their second consecutive Intermountain League Title, the first back to back baseball titles in Badger history. The wins improve their Intermountain League record to 8-0, and 18-2 overall. GAME 1 – BONNERS FERRY 13, KELLOGG 5 Senior Vince Bennett improved his overall record to 7-0 while striking out 13 and walking two batters in a complete game. The Badgers struck for four runs in the first inning after leadoff hitter Jesse Dunham reached base on a walk and Bennett singled to center. After consecutive wild pitches from the Wildcat pitcher to score Dunham, Caleb Gering scored Bennett on a ground out. Caleb Blackmore was hit by a pitch and later scored on Nick Sabin’s RBI single. Sabin later scored on a RBI single from Kevin Gray. The Badgers added a run in the top half of the second when Raul Rodriguez started the inning off with a single and later scored on a ground out. Kellogg tied the game 5 – 5 in the fifth inning after scoring two runs in the bottom of the third, a lone run in the fourth and two more in the fifth inning. The Badgers then scored seven runs in the top of the sixth inning on four hits and three errors. Bonners Ferry added a lone run in the seventh inning on Rodriguez’s second hit of the game to make the final score 13-5 Bonners Ferry   4  1  0  0  0  7  1 13  11  2 Kellogg             0  0  2  1  2  0  0   5    7  7 Badger hits: Dunham (2B), Bennett, Blackmore – 2, Nick Sabin – 2, Stockton, Gray, Chris Sabin, Rodriguez - 2 GAME 2 – BONNERS FERRY 19, KELLOGG 6 (5 Innings) The Badgers jumped out to another early four run lead and cruised to a 19-6 win in five innings over Kellogg. Senior Caleb Blackmore pitched a complete game to improve his record to 2 – 0. Jesse Dunham started the game off with a single followed by four consecutive walks. Chris Sabin then hit a two run single to left. Bonners Ferry added two more runs in the second inning highlighted by Blackmore’s RBI single to right field to make the score 6 – 0. The Wildcats cut the lead to 6 – 4 in their half of the second scoring four runs on four hits and two Badger errors. Kellogg wouldn’t go away in the third inning and narrowed the lead to 6 – 5 when they scored a lone run on a hit and another Badger error. The Badgers took control of the game in the fourth inning scoring four runs on only one hit and two walks. In the top of the fifth inning, Bonners Ferry scored nine runs on just three hits and five Wildcat errors to make the final score 19 – 6. Dunham and Blackmore each had two hits with Blackmore hitting a double and 3 RBI’s. Kevin Gray also had 3 RBI’s in the game. Bonners Ferry   4  2  0  4  9  19  8  2 Kellogg              0  4  1  1  0    6  9  6 Badger hits: Dunham – 2, Bennett, Blackmore – 2 (2B), Gray, Chris Sabin, Rodriguez, The Badgers travel to Timberlake on Tuesday to finish their Intermountain League schedule and next Friday to Newport to finish the regular season. The IML District tournament will be hosted by Bonners Ferry with the top-seeded Badgers taking on the fourth seed in league on Monday, May 9 at 4:00 p.m.