Twins fall but make title game regardless

TWIN FALLS, Idaho - When they step onto the diamond for today's winner-take-all state title game, the Lewis-Clark Twins will no doubt be looking to rebound from Saturday's 6-1 loss to Mountain View.

Perhaps against Mountain View.

Facing the winner of an earlier game today between Mountain View and Idaho Falls, the Twins will play at 3 p.m. PDT today, with the prize closer than ever.

A win at the Idaho state AA Legion baseball tournament would put Lewis-Clark into Regionals for the first time since 2009, the last time it won a state title, something the Twins can do for the 39th time in program history today.

The Twins knew they'd be in the title round of this double-elimination tournament regardless of what happened on Saturday - unlike Mountain View, playing for its life.

A life which was largely spared by streaky hitting.

"In those two innings, that's where their hits came," Twins Legion coach Kevin Maurer said of the seventh and eighth frames, when Mountain View broke a tie with five runs. "They had four singles in the seventh inning, so they were just able to get those timely hits. They didn't put a charge into any balls, but they got them to land where we weren't."

Just one day after every Twins batter tallied a hit, Lewis-Clark's offense stalled on Saturday, and Maurer thinks he knows why.

"In a state tournament, your offense can go cold, and that happened to us today," he said. "Our guys, they just wanted it so much - sometimes that puts a little extra pressure on you and you lose focus on what you're trying to do in that batter's box."

The goal for the valley baseball team hasn't changed.

"To leave no doubt who the best team in the state is," Maurer said, "and we get the opportunity to prove that (today)."

There were two bright spots for the Twins: starting pitcher Kyle Van Boeyen throwing six innings of two-hit baseball in which he didn't give up any earned runs, and Riley Way's run-scoring single in the second giving Lewis-Clark an early lead.

"Their pitcher, he kept us off-balance," Maurer said, noting his team's 10 strikeouts at bat, "which is very unusual for us."

That's the message he's imparting to his team: This was an aberration.

"We had opportunities early on, the bases loaded in the second and only got one run out of it. We had a guy on third with no outs in the third and weren't able to score him. So we had chances ... but weren't able to get that big-time hit and score guys.

"We were outhitting them 8-2 going into the seventh inning, but we also didn't get a hit past the fifth inning, that was the last time we had a hit."

While the Twins presumably will be better rested than the two teams playing earlier today for the right to make the state title game, being rested can be a double-edged sword, Maurer said.

"That can play one of two ways, a team could be a little more exhausted going in," Maurer said of Idaho Falls and Mountain View, "or, they're also coming off a win and energized and have also just swung their bats for a good nine innings, especially if they had a good hitting day at the plate."

For Maurer, his team's fate will come down to one thing.

"It's just how we handle the moment," he said, "and not letting it get too big from how we actually play the game. You gotta be challenged in life and that's what makes life so special, going through moments like this and how do you respond? That's what makes this game so great, because you get the opportunity to prove that's not the team that you were."

Mountain View 000 100 230-6 8 1

Twins 010 000 000-1 9 4

Boden Mills, Jaden Yaneey (8) and Tanner McGrath. Kyle Van Boeyen, Danny Robinson (7) and Jackson Fuller, Nate Savolainen (4).

Mountain View hits - Riley Harrison 2, Phil LaFevre 3, Tanner McGrath, Braxton Mills, John Milner

Twins hits - Riley Way, AJ Davis, Luke White (3B), Chase Adkison 3, Jackson Fuller, Cole Olson 2 (2B)