Reds Crowned Kings of the East

A ninth-inning single by Blake Mattfeldt capped a four-run Reds comeback versus Laurel on Sunday, foiling the Dodgers' bid for a seventh consecutive East Legion A tournament title and sealing the championship for Glasgow.

Mattfeldt dug into the batters box in the final frame following a leadoff hit by Ryan Padden which wicketed through the left fielder's legs and, when the dust kicked up from Padden's churning cleats had settled, left him standing on third base. Mattfeldt, who had in the past been relegated to the bench during Padden's starts, only finding himself pencilled in on Sunday due to coach Jack Sprague's decision to move a regular infielder to the outfield, wasted no time at the dish, slapping the first pitch he saw through the right side of the infield to plate Padden and usher his team into the Montana state as the East Region's top seed.

"We were making plans for the tenth inning," said Sprague, "but as it turned out, we didn't need to."

Despite the Reds' aggregate total of 24 runs through their first three games – victories over the Billings Cardinals (10-4), the Lewistown Redbirds (3-0), and Laurel (11-0) – the offense took its time Sunday to jolt into first gear.

"Laurel started to look tired after the fourth inning," said Sprague. "Both teams knew they were already going to state." The coach, though, was quick to refute the inference that this statement seemed to suggest – that the game's result was rendered moot by dint of prior qualification. "Obviously it makes it fun when there's a walkoff in the district finals."

Gage Legare's third-inning sacrifice fly cut into a 4-0 Laurel advantage, but it wasn't until the fifth, when a Sam Schultz single scored Keil Krumweide and, several batters later, a Kasey Seyfert bases-loaded walk sliced the Laurel lead to one, that Glasgow showed signs of life. Ryan Padden maintained his heretofore stoic presence on the rubber, and the Reds' bats continued to threaten the Laurel hurlers as a child's wiffle would a birthday party pinata.

But the breakthrough proved more difficult to engineer than the snatching of Kit Kats and fun-size jelly bean packs of of uncontested turf. The Reds loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the sixth, only for the team's three-through-five hitters to strike out, tap out to the pitcher, and pop out, respectively. The stingy Laurelites seemed to hop through each flaming hoop the hosts set up in the name of their destruction.

The breakthrough did come, however, in the seventh inning. Padden led off with a double, advanced to third on a Seyfert sac bunt, and scored on a passed ball three batters later. The game was knotted at four, the chessboard reset for a two-inning tete-a-tete.

If the Reds had lost, a second game would have been played to determine the tournament champion, as to that point Glasgow was undefeated in the double-elimination draw. Such excess proved unnecessary.

Sprague was happy with the weekend, and leaps to heap praise on the display put on by the team.

"Blake coming off the bench to get the game-winning hit; Ryan with a great performance. We had a lot of guys who, if there were an all-tourney team, would be on it."

He notes, though, that they still have a few kinks to tweak prior to departing for Kalispell on Tuesday or Wednesday for state. "As long as [our pitchers] throw strikes we're fine. And they will. It's the other stuff we need to worry about. Defense we'll be working on in the next few days." Six of the eight runs the Reds allowed between Thursday and Sunday were unearned. The team committed five errors in the championship game alone.

"Our mistakes were correctable [ones]," said Sprague. "All our guys have the ability; it's just a matter of playing the way they know they can."

The Montana State Legion A Tournament begins Thursday in Kalispell. As the East's number one seed, Glasgow will face the Helena Reps, who lost to the Deer Lodge Wranglers, 10-3, Monday morning in the South Region finals. The format is double-elimination.

East District Tournament

Selected Stats:

Keil Krumwiede: 9-16, 2 RBI, 6 R, 4 BB; 8 IP, 7 H, 5 K, 0 ER (vs. Laurel)

Jason Thibault: 9.0 IP, 13 K, 2 H, BB, 0 ER (116 pitches) (vs. Lewistown)

Blake Mattfeldt: 4-10, 2 R, 2 RBI, 2 BB

Gage Legare: 7-15, 2 R, 5 RBI, 2 BB

East District Tournament

Weekend Scores

Glasgow Reds 10, Billings Cardinals 4

Reds 3, Lewistown Redbirds 0

Reds 11, Laurel Dodgers 0

Reds 5, Laurel 4