Johns Pitches Impact to Pool Play Split in Boise Tournament

BOISE - Hunter Johns scattered seven hits and yielded only three earned runs to lead Missoula Impact Baseball Club to a 10-4 win over Bishop Kelly 16U on Saturday afternoon in the final pool play game of the GSL College Series Treasure Valley Kickoff tournament in Boise. Missoula dropped a 17-11 slugfest with Sandy Pack earlier in the day. 

Impact went 2-1 in pool play to earn a berth as the 4-seed in the tournament semifinals at 12:30 on Sunday. Impact (14-7) squares off with Sandy Pack for the second straight day, but this time with four of its top-line pitchers available. Sandy Pack is currently ranked #25 in the Northwest 18U Division by Premier Sports Tournaments and took down #18 Bishop Kelly on Saturday morning. Coming into the weekend, PST has rankings for 122 of the 18U teams that had participated in GSL, WCP, or Seattle Elite Baseball tournaments so far this summer club season. 

Cooper Elliott and Matty Herzog led Impact’s impressive Impact hitting attack with three hits each on the day. Dillon Gunlock, Cole Smith, and Carson Bay each added two hits and Brennan Labbe drilled a two-run triple in the first game. Overall, Missoula pounded out 16 hits on the day. 

Johns’ gritty performance on the mound was story of the day for the Impact club. The junior right-handed used a nice array of breaking stuff to keep Bishop Kelly off-balance. Johns demonstrated his best command of the season over 4 1/3 innings of efficient work. 

Bishop Kelly jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the first inning, but Johns settled down and tossed three scoreless innings to allow Missoula’s bats to get going. Bay knotted the score with a sharp two-RBI single in the second inning. 

Smith gave Missoula a lead it would not relinquish in the third by drilling a hanging curveball for a line drive RBI single to center field, making it 3-2. Later in the inning around several walks and an error, Gunlock laced an RBI single to right field, and by the time the dust settled, Missoula had a commanding 9-2 lead.

Johns finally tired in the fifth inning and Bishop Kelly cut the gap to 9-4, but Nate Dill came on with two runners on and one out. Dill immediately induced a ground ball to shortstop in which Elliott and Smith turned a sparkling 6-4-3 double play, their second of the game. Dill retired the side in order in the sixth inning. Herzog singled and scored to seal the run-rule victory in the bottom of the sixth. 

The highlight of the game was the multi-talented Elliott, an aspiring switch-hitter, batting left-handed for the first time and drilling a line drive single to the gap in right-center. 

The morning game was a slugfest as Impact pieced together a bullpen day of sorts to stay under pitch count limitations and preserve arms for bracket play on Sunday. Bay and Smith ripped singles in the first and Dill plated a run on a long sacrifice fly to Missoula up 2-0, but Sandy Pack took a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the frame. Labbe’s ringing triple in the second inning gave Missoula a 6-2 lead but Sandy scored three in the second. Herzog’s two-run single in the third extended the Missoula lead, but Sandy blew the game open with seven in the third. 

The Impact lineup created constant traffic in scoring 32 runs in its three pool play games. Gunlock, Smith, and Herzog posted gaudy on-base percentages. Gunlock reached by a hit or a walk nine out of 10 plate appearances, and Smith and Herzog were each on base seven out of 10 times. Bay paced Impact with five hits in the pool play games. 

“Our bats continued to stay hot,” said Michael Hutcherson, Impact Baseball Manager. “Looking forward to tomorrow.” 

Stay tuned for the final tournament outcome and a full report this coming week. It will be a good day of baseball on Sunday in Boise!