Colfax 12s end tourney run with 2-4 showing at Orofino

Colfax 12-under players take a break to book a team photo during their last tournament weekend at Orofino. In front, from the left are Dylan Heiser, Parker Huber, Cal Gregory, Logan Gingerich and Brody Yarnell. In back are Coach Wayne Gregory, Havin Heytvelt of Pomeroy, Jeff Davies, Danny Robinson, Bryson Frye, Keith Gfeller, and assistant coaches Brent Gingerich and Jim Sharp.

Colfax 12-under Little Leaguers finished a three-week tournament run Sunday with a 2-4 mark at the Orofino tournament. Coach Wayne Gregory said the finish didn’t exactly seem like 2-4 because the locals battled in most of their games.

The coach rated the Orofino show as tops among the three stops. Orofino hosted 16 teams in the 12-under competition and 10 teams in the 10-under bracket. The tourney totaled 79 games overall.

The Colfax team started Friday morning with a 5-2 win over the Missoula Outlaws, one a several Montana clubs who came west for the Orofino competition.

Havin Heytvelt of Pomeroy, who returned to the club after missing last week’s action at Pullman, and Danny Robinson combined to pitch the opening win. Robinson also hit 3-3 and Keith Gfeller and Cal Gregory each hit 2-3.

Colfax scored all five of their runs in the opener with Gregory tagging a double.

Friday afternoon they sustained a 2-6 loss to the Lewis Clark Titans, a team which eventually landed in second place after bowing to Bitteroot in the championship game.

The LC team scored three runs in the first inning, and Colfax carved it down to 2-3 with a run in the third and another run in the top of the sixth. LC dropped the hammer with three more runs in the bottom of the sixth.

Gregory and Jeff Davies pitched for Colfax, and Gregory had two hits in the game.

Saturday morning Colfax went up against the Latah County 12s, a team they defeated in Potlatch two weeks ago. They won 8-6 after Latah came to life to score five runs in the sixth.

Heytvelt and Robinson pitched the win. Dylan Heiser, Robinson and Gfeller each had three hits, and Bryson Frye, and Logan Gingerich each had two hits.

Saturday afternoon, Colfax lost to the Kalispell Sundawgs 3-5 after pulling to a 3-3 tie. The K club scored once in each of the next two framers to take the win. Heytvelt started for Colfax, and Robinson had two hits in the game.

Sunday morning, the locals went up against Colville, a team which crushed them 23-7 last week at Pullman where Colville placed second.

This time around, the game went down to the last inning before Colville pulled out a one-run win, 7-6, in the last inning.

Colfax posted a 2-1 lead in the fourth inning, lost it when Colville rattled in four runs in the fifth and then took it back when they scored four runs in the top of the sixth.

Coach Gregory again credited his crew for battling down to the last out.

Final game on the Orofino trip went down to another one-runner, a 4-5 loss to the Pullman combo team.

Colfax booked a 4-1 lead in the top of the third inning, but Pullman came back to score three in the bottom of the third and tie it up. They added one more on the bottom of the next inning to crack the 5-4 lead which stood up over the last two innings. In the sixth, Colfax put two runners on the bases but they were stranded. Carter Dahmen of Colton, who played with Colfax on the first two tourney trips, played with the Pullman club at Orofino and pitched the win.

Overall, the Colfax team posted a 7-8 run for the tourney entries at Potlatch, Pullman and Orofino.

“It was amazing how much they improved over those three weeks,” Coach Gregory noted. Four players will graduate off the team this year, but the coach plans to launch the club again for tournaments next year. Coach Gregory said he would also like to see a 10-under Colfax team hit the tournament trail.