Johns Brilliant, Smith Adds Firepower, Missoula Impact Routs Rawlings Tigers, 10-1, in Whitefish
WHITEFISH - Hunter Johns continued his brilliant run on the mound with another masterpiece and Cole Smith went 2-for-3 with triple to lead Missoula Impact to a 10-1 win over the Rawlings Tigers Spokane 18U team in bracket play of the Ed Gallo Wood Bat Tournament in Whitefish last Sunday.
Johns has now thrown a remarkable 21 and 1/3 innings without allowing an earned run. Smith clubbed a key two-RBI triple to the fence in centerfield to spark a five-run second inning outburst. Kody Evans smoked an RBI double to the wall in right and added two more hits to his incredible second half of the season. Cash Mickey drilled a pinch-hit line drive two-run double to right-center and Landin Ramsay added an RBI single.
Missoula tightened up its defense with a sharp performance after losing two pool play games earlier in the tournament as a result of errors at key times.
Nolan Oschell tossed a sparkling five innings of one-hit baseball in the opener against the Spokane Expos-Williamson team, but costly miscues led to a six-run sixth inning that broke open a close game and led to an Expos victory, 7-1.
Caleb Hoppe threw five brilliant innings against the Glacier Twins, allowing two hits and striking out 10. However, two errors spurred four unearned runs that gave the Twins a 4-0 victory. Missoula only managed three hits by Marek Hall, Joey Supola, and Mickey.
On Saturday, the West Plains Cannons jumped out to an early 7-0 lead but Missoula rallied in the fourth inning. Smith crushed a double to right-center, Evans reached on an error, and Sawyer Tackett lined an RBI single to make it 7-2. Gunlock hammered a double and Ramsay laced an RBI single the next inning but the Cannons put it away with three more unearned runs. Missoula finished strong in the bottom of the seventh with singles by Matt Doty and Joey Supola, a sacrifice fly by Smith, and a ringing RBI double by Evans. The Cannons finally closed it out for a 10-5 win.
The Coeur d’ Alene Lumbermen AAA cruised to an 8-0 victory over Impact on Saturday behind a sparkling two-hitter by hard-throwing right-hander Nate Weatherhead. Evans and Johns delivered the only hits for Impact.
Overall, Impact was highly competitive in the first two games but didn’t put it all together until the solid performance on Sunday against the Rawlings Tigers.