Twins tops in Northwest

Robinson delivers walkoff single as L-C rallies for 2 runs in ninth to beat Missoula 6-5

MISSOULA, Mont. - Back in the day, the Lewis-Clark Twins once tallied four regional titles in a 14-year span.

It's hard to imagine any of them were more satisfying than the one they captured Sunday.

Danny Robinson laced a walkoff single in the bottom of the ninth inning, capping the Twins' improbable march through the losers' bracket to beat the Missoula Mavericks 6-5 in the championship game of the Northwest Regional Legion baseball tournament.

The Twins recorded five consecutive wins - the centerpiece being a 15-inning wonder Saturday night - after dropping their Regionals opener to the Yakima Pepsi Pak, a loss they avenged Sunday with a 8-5 triumph that vaulted them into the title game.

"Regionals has been nothing short of incredible," first-year Twins coach Kevin Maruer said. "To lose that first game and to go through the losers' bracket and play 33 innings in 15 hours - to be able to do that as a team - just shows the character and the heart of our guys."

Lewis-Clark (39-11) thus landed a berth in the Legion World Series at Shelby, N.C, where they face the Mid-South champion at 1:30 p.m. PDT on Thursday.

AJ Davis of the Twins was named Most Valuable Player of the regional tournament after fueling the win over Yakima with his second straight four-hit performance. Jaden Phillips opened the scoring in the championship game with a solo home run in the second inning.

Still, the Twins trailed 5-4 heading into the ninth inning, when they wasted no time launching the decisive rally. Alex Light singled, advanced on a bunt by Davis and scored on a double by Luke White.

The Mavericks (54-27) then intentionally walked Phillips, to no avail, as Chase Adkison promptly stroked his third single of the game and Robinson hit the game-winner to left field. It was the first hit of the game for Robinson, brother of Lewis-Clark State slugger J.J. Robinson.

The ninth-inning surge had been preceded by a Lewis-Clark double play in the top of the inning.

"Once that turn happened, I'd never seen a more confident team come into the dugout," Maurer said. "They felt no pressure in that moment. I liked the look on our guys' faces, that they knew they could win that game."

It's the sixth regional crown for the Twins, who bagged four of them under revered coach Dwight Church between 1964 and 1977. Tom Grunenfelder coached the Twins to another title in 2001, when they proceeded to place second in the World Series.

What followed was a 16-year drought in Northwest titles until Sunday, when Maurer won a championship in his first year as head coach. The Genesee High coach had been a Twins assistant for two summers before being promoted.

The Twins' back-to-back wins Sunday - the second coming against a Missoula team seeing its first action of the day - came after a grueling battle with that same Mavericks club Saturday night, decided on Ryder Shoults' run-scoring single in the top of the 15th inning as the host team suffered its first loss of the tourney.

The Twins may have betrayed a touch of fatigue in the fifth inning of the championship game as the Mavericks notched a run on a wild pitch and another on an error to take a 3-2 lead.

But the Twins apparently rose above whatever fatigue they were feeling.

"It was truly hard to get to the point where we were - to make it to Sunday," Maurer said. "We just said, 'We got to this point, fellas. You can't leave anything to chance. You've got to play with every ounce of passion you have.' I thought our energy level was great."

The Twins knotted the score in their half of the inning on singles by Jackson Fuller and Olson and a sacrifice fly by Riley Way, who had returned to action that game after missing the Yakima contest. He had suffered a facial injury fielding a grounder the previous night.

Spencer Schock hit a two-run double as the Mavs went back up 5-3 in the eighth, but L-C's Kolt Olson scaled the outfield wall to deny Missoula what probably would have been another two-run double.

The Twins then cut the margin in half in the bottom of the inning on singles by Adkison and Fuller.

Earlier, Schock hit an RBI single as Missoula tied the score 1-1 in the second, and the Twins restored the small lead in the third on a double by Olson followed by a walk and Light's RBI single.

Against Yakima, Wyatt Baldwin gave up nine hits and walked four in 81/3 innings, but he threw six shutout frames, including the sixth through the ninth, the last of these with relief from White.

The Twins tallied three runs in the first inning, getting an RBI single from Alex Light and capitalizing on a wild pitch on a third strike to produce the third run.

Light and Phillips added RBI singles in a three-run fourth, and Chris Powell doubled to spark a two-run fifth. The two teams went scoreless the final four innings.

Xander Orejudos homered and double for the Pepsi Pak.

Davis finished that game with four hits, just as he had done the previous night in the 15-inning marathon.

Yakima 030 110 000-5 9 3

Lewis-Clark 300 320 00x-8 12 1

Quincy, Bailey (5) and Towsley. White, Baldwin (1) and Adkison.

Yakima hits - Helgeson, Archer, Orejudos 3 (2B, HR), Dietrich, Towsley, Belton.

Lewis-Clark hits - Light 2, Davis 4, Phillips, Adkison, Robinson, Powell (2B), Shoults, Olson.

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Missoula 001 020 020-5 13 1

Lewis-Clark 011 001 012-6 16 2

McHugh and Schock. Davis, Robinson (8) and Fuller.

Missoula hits - Martin, Schock 4 (2B), Leonard 2, McHugh, Buchanan 2 (2B), Richardson 2.

Lewis-Clark hits - Light 2, Davis, White 2 (2B), Phillips 2 (HR), Adkison 3, Robinson, Fuller 2. Olson 3 (2B).