Bees stung by 8-run fifth in elimination game loss to Skyview

IDAHO FALLS — The Bonneville Bees could not have asked for a better situation in Friday’s state tournament elimination game, leading 7-1 with their ace on the mound.

Brock Bowman had been dominant since dealing with some first-inning control issues, retiring 10 of 11 Skyview batters, seven on strikeouts, including a strike out of the first batter he faced in the bottom of the fourth. But Skyview senior Keegan Sullivan started a rally, reaching on a dropped third strike.

Things began to unfold there for the Bees, with the Hawks turning the innocent start into two runs. Bowman stifled the rally, but could not repeat the disappearing act in the fifth.

Skyview capitalized on a pair of Bonneville errors, stacking six hits and a walk to pile up eight runs in that fifth, turning a 7-3 deficit into an 11-7 lead. Bonneville was unable to answer, accepting an 11-7 loss and a third-place finish in the 5A Idaho High School Baseball State Championships.

After the game, an extended conversation between coaches and players and a series of long hugs, Bonneville head coach Ryan Alexander talked about the season that has now come to an end. He said that his team, particularly the 11 seniors, has a lot to be proud of.

This year’s seniors have played in four state tournaments, he pointed out. They have won a state championship, and they were once again among the three best team’s in the state.

“There’s a lot to be proud of,” Alexander said. “Not easy to hear following a one-inning collapse, I get it, but it’s going to serve them for the rest of their lives, and that’s what is invaluable,” Alexander said.

Skyview started the bottom of the first with a pair of walks surrounding an RBI double, taking a 1-0 lead. But Bowman used the combination of a mid-80s fastball and a devastating changeup to escape the jam with just one run crossing the plate.

And the Bee offense immediately got that run back and more in the top of the second, on an RBI double from senior Jackson Ropp and a sacrifice fly from sophomore Michael McCarty.

Bonneville kept the runs coming, scoring three times in the third, and twice more in the fourth to take a 7-1 lead while Bowman found his groove on the mound.

The senior right-hander entered the game with a perfect 7-0 record with a 2.44 ERA.

Much of that dominance has come on his new kick-change, which he spent more than six months developing. He used the kick-change as the final pitch in nine at-bats during the first four innings of the game, producing two groundouts, two hits, one walk and four swinging strikeouts.

The Bonneville offense was led by Ropp, who went 3-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI, and Carter Bowen, who doubled and drove in two runs. But the seven runs it produced were not enough.

As the final out was recorded, putting an end to the Bees’ season, shock turned to depression in the Bonneville dugout.

Though the players were still visibly downtrodden, after a long huddle with their coaches, they were upbeat enough to chat with teammates and exchange embraces.

Alexander said that accepting successes along with failures is a huge part of the growth athletics provide.

“All of this that we’re doing, baseball and high school baseball, is helping these young men become better humans,” the coach said. “This is a game — of course, I’m competitive, I want to win –, but at the end it’s about becoming a better human being. Last year, we got to taste the victories; we got to taste what it feels like to be successful. This year, obviously not. So we get to taste that, too. And both of (those things) will help those young men become better human beings.”

Despite the loss, and the sour taste the fifth inning will leave in Bonneville’s collective mouth, Alexander maintains that a third-place finish is plenty to be proud of.

“I like that it stings, I like that it’s hard, because that means you care. It means that you’ve invested enough to care. … I’m proud of what they’ve accomplished. I’m not disappointed at all.”