Congrats to the State Champs!!!!! Great bunch of kids. I will be rooting for the SR MJE AllStars to win it all too at the the little league level. Quite a few of the Pioneers play SR little league too. It is too bad the Mavs are so political and time consuming. There are alot of good players not on the Mavs due to the time and politics associated with the Mavs. These kids would have been and still can be a great help to the Mavs in the next few years.
BTW, Steven Deyoung is one of the toughest and best catchers I have ever seen in Missoula.
Congrats Boys. :thumb:
http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2008/07/19/sports/sports01.txt
Local/Regional Sports
Pioneers repeat: Missoula squad topples Helena for second straight state title
By FRITZ NEIGHBOR of the Missoulian
Missoula Pioneers catcher Steven DeYoung smothers the plate as he tags out Louie Lopez of the Helena All-Stars on Friday in the fifth inning of the championship game of the Senior Babe Ruth state tournament at Kelly Pine Field in Bonner. Missoula beat Helena 10-5 to win the tournament for the second straight year.
Photo by MICHAEL GALLACHER/Missoulian
BONNER - Practice time is at a premium and priorities can occasionally get shuffled, and maybe that's why the Missoula Pioneers are having such a good time.
The Pioneers downed the Helena All-Stars 10-5 Friday to claim their second straight Senior Babe Ruth state championship at Kelly Pine Field. They came in short-handed, with Heath Eustance and Justin Montelius at the East-West Shrine football game, and left with a 29-12 record.
Just another day at the yard.
“I think with us there's a lot more freedom, since we don't practice every day,” said Dustin McCrudden, who went the distance for the Pioneers, scattering six hits, six walks and a hit batter. “We do pretty well. They (American Legion teams like the local Mavericks) play 80 games, we'll play around 30. It's a struggle, but it's still fun.”
The fun started early for Missoula, with Jake Ginn pulling an RBI single to right, and coming home on Eddy Apostol's three-run home run to center. That put the Pioneers up 4-1 after one inning.
Apostol added a fourth RBI with a double in the third inning, but the Helena All-Stars kept fighting. They tied the game on a three-run homer from Louie Lopez, who also had four RBIs, in the third. Derek Miller's RBI fielder's choice, following three straight walks issued by McCrudden, knotted the score a 5-5 in the fourth.
“We knew it was a ball game right then,” said Pioneers catcher Steven DeYoung. “We just said, ‘Let's get it going.' We're a very good hitting team and we know it. We started to come back when we needed to.”
DeYoung's RBI single - the third straight hit in the fourth inning off starter Kody Brown - plated Dustin Hover with the go-ahead run.
One out later, McCrudden added another RBI single. Shawn Jensen's fielder's choice brought in another run and McCrudden came home on a passed ball to make it 9-5.
The Pioneers scored again when Kirk Booi doubled to lead off the fifth and came home on Brandt Montelius' one-out double. Booi shored up the bottom of the lineup with two hits and two runs.
That was more than enough for McCrudden, who scuffled at times but also struck out eight.
Helena had its problems on the base paths: Chuck Churchill was forced at third on what should've been a single to left in the fourth; the inning ended with DeYoung picking Miller off first.
“He made me look better than I was,” McCrudden said of the polished DeYoung. “I was overthrowing too much and putting a lot of them in the dirt. He blocked a lot of them.”
Another Helena rally in the sixth stalled when Clayton Church ran on a grounder to third baseman Craig Maunder, who caught Church in a run-down.
The All-Stars, who won two loser-out games Thursday to make the final, managed a walk by Brown in the seventh. But then the hot-hitting Lopez bounced into a game-ending double-play.
“They're a good team. They're a very well-disciplined team at the plate,” said DeYoung of Helena. “Nice easy swings. Fun to watch, and a pain in the butt catch against. Or not to catch against.”
DeYoung has caught plenty of games - all but one of the Pioneers', by his count, and he gets more Saturday with the Mt. Jumbo Little League Senior All-Stars. They host Butte for the District 2 championship, also at Kelly Pine.
“It's really cool to win this one and then try and go get another one,” said DeYoung.
That's the beauty for the Pioneers, who mix baseball with work and other activities. DeYoung is about to pass 60 games this summer, with possibly more on the way. With Friday's win the Pioneers, who are ages 16-18, qualified for the Pacific Northwest Region July 23-27 in Bremerton, Wash.
It's a nice payoff for what some might call weekend warriors.
“It's not as much pressure on the kids,” McCrudden said. “Because all we do is go out there and smile and have fun, like you saw on the field.”
Helena 103 100 0 - 5 6 3
Missoula 401 410 x - 10 12 1
Kody Brown, Louie Lopez (4) and Clayton Church. Dustin McCrudden and Steven DeYoung. WP - McCrudden. LP - Brown.
HELENA ALL-STARS - Derek Miller 1-4, Kody Brown 0-1, Louie Lopez 3-4, Dustin Hamper 1-2, Mike Pritchett 0-3, Clayton Church 1-2, Chuck Churchill 0-2, Alex Beveridge 0-2, Darrell Martin 0-2, Cory Budak 0-1.
MISSOULA PIONEERS - Steven DeYoung 1-4, Brandt Montelius 2-3, Dustin McCrudden 1-3, Jake Ginn 1-3, Shawn Jensen 1-4, Eddy Apostol 2-4, Paul Paeth 1-2, Craig Maunder 0-1, Dustin Hover 1-3, Kirk Booi 2-3.
2B - Apostol, Booi, Montelius. HR - Lopez, Apostol. RBIs - Lopez 4, Miller, DeYoung, Montelius, McCrudden, Ginn, Jensen, Apostol 4.
