No ‘squeaking’ involved: Malad returns to Idaho’s baseball mountaintop

NAMPA — The Malad Dragons were in a perfect situation, Saturday. Needing one win for a state championship, with two shots at it, they had both of their ace pitchers up their sleeves.

Head coach Jeff Snow was preparing for bed Friday night with his pitching plan set. He was going to start Brycen Howe with a banner on the line. But he got a knock at his hotel room door. And when he opened it, he found his three seniors — Howe, Carter Blaisdell and Brady Showell.

The trio pitched its own idea: to start Showell.

“We planned to go the other way,” Snow said. “They came to my door last night and knocked on my door, the three seniors, and said, ‘Coach, here’s a thought we believe in.'”

After sleeping on the proposal, Snow made up his mind Saturday morning: “those are my leaders, I trust them.” So, he started Showell.

“That’s awesome. I’me super-proud of them, for coming to my door as men,” the coach said. “Just more icing on the cake. … Baseball is part of it, sure, and this (celebration) is awesome, but watching them grow as men, it’s pretty emotional.”

The decision turned out to be a good one, as Showell turned in a complete-game win tossing up zeroes in the sixth and seventh innings to finish an 8-6 championship victory. For good measure, the right-hander added one hit, one RBI and one run scored in four trips to the plate.

After the game, Snow told EastIdahoSports.com that he has spent some time this weekend pondering his team’s season. In doing so, he latched on to an April 27 practice, the night before the Dragons faced the Marsh Valley Eagles.

He said he wanted to be Marsh Valley, a program he admires for several reason. But the focus for his team at that practice was simple. Snow told his boys that if they won 11 of their last 12 games, they would be state champs — repeating what they did in 2023.

“That was said, then all of a sudden, here we are. It was just one game at a time,” he said.

The Dragons lost to the Eagles, 10-5. From there, they finished their season on a 10-game winning streak.

“The reason why we won is because they are a unit,” the coach said of his team. “They’re one. They truly are. To be part of a team where these kids truly had fun and loved each other — and they really do, and they will — that’s pretty good.”

Malad had to overcome early deficits twice in Saturday’s 3A Baseball State Championship at Nampa’s Rodeo Park.

The Trojans stormed out of the gates with a two-run top of the first.

But the Dragons answered right back with a two-spot of their own — on RBI hits from catcher Carter Carey and the starter, Showell.

Nampa Christian returned serve though, with another run in the top of the second.

“Then we went on a little tear,” Snow said of his team’s response.

On RBIs from Carey, Rydon Montgomery, Kyson Willie, Easton Green and Cale Briggs, Malad pushed six runs across in the bottom of the third to take an 8-3 lead.

Showell surrendered one run in the fourth, and two more in the fifth, but he slammed the door from there setting down seven of the last eight batters he faced to shut the door on the Trojans.

Snow, again, went back to the situation his team was in, due to how things unfolded over the weekend. Both Howe and Showell pitched Thursday, but neither reached the 61-pitch threshold that would have them made them ineligible to return.

Then on Friday, Kurt Ward and Blaisdell teamed up on the mound to set the stage for a rousing comeback from the Malad offense, which scored the game’s final seven runs to grab an 11-10 semifinals win over the same Nampa Christian squad.

That result meant the Dragons would need just one win Saturday, with two chances to get it, and both they had their bog guns both available.

“We had these two studs. Even if we went another game, we still had Brycen. No one else has that,” Snow said.

Snow also addressed the allegations made by some leading up to the state tournament, that his Dragons snuck into the field.

“We’ll sneak in every year, if it’s like this. That’s fine. I like being the underdog,” he said.

As part of that storyline, Snow was glad his team had the opportunity to beat the Trojans twice. Because Nampa Christian is a private school, they recruit kids from across the state, something public schools like Malad cannot do.

The Trojans needed to beat the Marsing Huskies Saturday morning to make that rematch happen. Snow is a fan of Marsing’s players, coaches and fans, but admitted he would be lying if he said he wasn’t hoping the Trojans would win.

“I was hoping they would pull it off, so we could come back and beat them two in a row,” Snow said. “It may be minor, but it underlined the ‘squeaked in’ thing. (Nampa Christian is) a powerhouse, they have been for a long time.”

5A Baseball State Championship

The Bonneville Bees bounced back from a gut-wrenching loss to Twin Falls, Friday night, to beat the Vallivue Falcons, 12-2, by way of the mercy rule, and set up a rematch with the Bruins.

The Bees beat Twin Falls in Game 1 of the championship round, 12-10, to set the stage for a winner-take-all game. The winner Saturday evening will snatch the banner and blue trophy.