West Wins Battle of Unbeatens : Marine’s Clutch Double in 5-4 Win Overshadows Pregame Bickering

It took three days but Woodland Hills West finally got a taste of adversity in the American Legion Northwest regional tournament.

Luckily, most of it took place off the Lewis-Clark State College field.

West defeated Meridian, Ida., 5-4, Friday night in a battle of the tournament’s lone remaining unbeaten teams, but not without fireworks.

First, starting shortstop Ricky Banuelos and West Coach Gary Gibson got into a pregame tiff that resulted in Banuelos stripping off his uniform, packing his duffel bag and heading toward the team hotel from the dugout.

Catcher Bobby Kim, sidelined with a jammed thumb Thursday, was first omitted from the lineup and then penciled in after threatening to follow Banuelos through the parking lot.

And even though both players remained--Kim started and Banuelos appeared as a pinch-hitter in the eighth and stayed in the game at shortstop--it took a two-run, two-out double by Del Marine on an 0-2 pitch in the top of the ninth inning to hand West a win.

With two out, Paul Geller was safe on a fielding error by Meridian first baseman Don Barowsky. Geller barely beat a last-second, sweeping tag attempt as he hit the bag at first. Anybody remember Bill Buckner?

Ryan McGuire followed with a double to left-center and Marine then ripped a curve to the gap in left for the game-winner. The hit was Marine’s ninth of the tournament.

“All I was doing was praying that Ryan would get up,” Marine said. “I knew if he got up, I’d get up, because he’d get on base.”

Marine took a fastball for a called strike and a curve for strike two.

“Once I saw both pitches I knew he was mine,” Marine said. “I saw that curveball coming all the way.”

It was barely enough to hold off Meridian. Or make that Meridian’s Tory Miran.

Miran homered, doubled and relieved starter Sean Harris in the sixth.

Miran, who will be a sophomore at Nevada Las Vegas in the fall--he was in the starting rotation last season as a freshman--struck out six batters in three innings and nearly choked West’s hopes of cruising into the tournament final without a loss.

The eighth was his 12th inning pitched in three days, however, reaching the tournament limit, and he could not pitch the ninth. David Brown replaced him and took the loss.

In the bottom of the ninth, McGuire walked Lee Reiber with one out and Miran with two out. Barowsky grounded out to second baseman Geller to end the game.

“Sure, why not. You always got to throw in a couple of walks to make it interesting,” said McGuire, who relieved starter Jason Mitchell in the seventh.

West (33-5) will play Vancouver at 7:30 tonight. West needs two more wins to advance to the World Series in Memphis, Tenn., next week.

Meridian broke a 3-3 tie in the seventh when Dennis Gerosian singled to left-center and scored on a double by Brown.

A Meridian error also helped West get on the scoreboard and overcome a 2-0 deficit in the sixth.

Marine led off with a single to left, moved to second on a walk to Jason Cohen and scored on a single by Kim.

Jeff Marks followed with a sacrifice bunt to third that Bill Detmar threw away at first, allowing Cohen and Kim to score for a 3-2 lead.

West could have scored more. With one out, Gregg Sheren was safe on shortstop Brad Wickam’s overthrow at first, putting runners on second and third. Carl McFadden grounded to third, and Sheren was picked off second for the third out.