‘Completely out of the blue.’ Owyhee baseball scores upset, will play for 5A state title
The Owyhee High baseball team extended its Cinderella run Friday, upsetting No. 1 Mountain View 2-1 for a spot in the state championship in its first season.
Owyhee junior Nick McDaniel struck out Logan Burrell looking with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh inning on a controversial call, adding another improbable chapter in a storybook season for Owyhee.
The No. 5 Storm (19-9) will face No. 2 Rocky Mountain (22-6) at 5 p.m. Saturday at Wolfe Field in Caldwell for the state title.
Few expected much out of the Storm this year. They had only a single senior on the roster. They finished eighth out of 12 teams in a 5A SIC preseason coaches’ poll. And they started 5-5 in their first 10 conference games.
Yet, here the Storm are.
“This was really unexpected,” McDaniel said. “I mean, we thought we’re gonna be decent. But this is completely out of the blue.”
Owyhee came from behind for the second straight day Friday. The Storm stranded nine runners through five innings, squandering a pair of bases-loaded opportunities in the second and third innings. But junior Cole Rohlmeier lined an RBI single to right field in the sixth to tie the score, setting up a dramatic seventh inning.
Freshman Keegan Kelly joined the varsity team midway through the season after an injury to Rohlmeier. But he didn’t show his age in the largest at-bat of his life, ripping a two-out, run-scoring single to center field in the top of the seventh for the Storm’s first lead.
“It had definitely been leading up to that,” Kelly said. “He’d been giving me a lot of off-speed, so I was just sitting on off-speed. He gave me that middle inside (breaking ball), and it was nice, easy (swing) through the ball.”
Mountain View (22-4) threatened in the bottom of the seventh, loading the bases with two outs. A borderline call went against McDaniel for a walk that loaded the bases. But the junior didn’t despair. He worked his way to a full count before spinning a slider for the game-winning strikeout.
Few Owyhee players celebrated, including McDaniel, who waited for confirmation of the call on a pitch that looked to be off the plate inside. Boos rained from the Mountain View bleachers while Owyhee’s fans celebrated. The Storm then mobbed McDaniel on the field.
“I kind of disagree with the call, but I guess we’ll take it,” McDaniel said. “... It was a makeup call, I think.”
Owyhee coach Russ Wright joined the program with eight state titles under his belt from Fruitland. He said he never ruled out a late-season run for the Storm, but he admitted a .500 season with a few wins at district would have satisfied him.
He said it took time for a young roster to adjust to him, his coaching staff and the high expectations they set. But the Storm head into Saturday’s championship game as winners of nine of their past 10.
“If you want in that card game, this is the price of admission,” Wright said. “And instead of fighting it, they kind of embraced it.
“Some teams fight it because it’s very hard. It’s hard to have competitive practices. It’s hard when we’re ramping up the tension, and we’re ramping up conditioning, and there’s something on the line all the time. It’s not always warm, fuzzy and cuddly. Some teams aren’t made for that. This team kind of became made for it.”
Mountain View drops into the third-place game, where it will face Timberline (21-5) at 12:30 p.m. Saturday at Wolfe Field.
This story was originally published May 20, 2022 at 9:35 PM.
