‘Can’t script it any better.’ Owyhee wins third straight state title in coach’s final game
Russ Wright saw a lot in 38 years of coaching baseball. But even he shook his head at Saturday’s outcome.
Last week, Wright informed his Owyhee baseball team that he would retire at the end of the season. He’d already turned in his paperwork and bought a house in South Dakota, where his eldest sons and grandchildren live. But he waited until the Storm made the state tournament to avoid providing a distraction.
The Storm had one last ride with one of the most decorated coaches in state history this week. And Owyhee sent him out with a Hollywood-worthy ending, edging Rocky Mountain 5-4 at The College of Idaho’s Wolfe Field to capture the program’s third straight state championship.
“You can’t script it any better than that,” said Wright, 61. “That’s a great way to retire.”
The state title continues the hard-to-believe story for Owyhee (24-2). The Storm became the first 5A baseball team to win three state championships since Boise three-peated from 1996-98. But the Treasure Valley’s newest high school opened just three years ago, meaning the Storm have yet to finish a season without a state title.
Owyhee junior Gage Haws said much of the credit belongs to Wright, now an 11-time state champion.
“The respect we have for him is unheard of,” Haws said. “... He’s a living legend. Nobody wants to let him down, so we all work our tail off for him.”
No. 2-seeded Owyhee jumped out to an early lead Saturday and held on for another trophy. Sophomore Nathan Keith ripped a bases-clearing, three-run double down the right-field line in the bottom of the first inning. Then an error and Ryder Cutlip’s RBI single in the second built Owyhee a 5-0 cushion.
No. 4 Rocky Mountain, which lost several players to Owyhee when it opened, refused to roll over. The Grizzlies responded with a four-run fourth inning, highlighted by Jeff Thompson’s three-run double, to cut the lead to one. But Haws shut the door from there.
The Utah Valley commit came on in relief, got the Storm out of the inning and fired 3 ⅓ no-hit frames to close out the win. He proved winning has yet to grow old, letting out a monster’s roar and firing his glove into the sky after Keagan Kelly and Nathan Keith turned a double play to wrap up another championship.
Haws also threw two no-hit innings for the win in Friday’s nine-inning victory over Lake City.
“Gage is all full throttle, man,” Wright said. “That is Gage, for better or worse sometimes. He would tell you that.
“It was really special to him. He just loves and thrives on that competition.”
New high schools typically struggle when they open. Few seniors move over immediately, and it takes years to build programs from the ground up.
Owyhee stands as the exception, capturing state championships in boys basketball, softball and girls soccer already. But the Storm’s baseball program is the gold standard, going 3-for-3 at the state tournament since playing its first game.
The Storm won state the first year with just a single senior on the roster. Owyhee then took everyone’s best shot the next two seasons. But when championship Saturday came, the Storm were the last team standing again.
“It’s incredible,” Cutlip said. “It’s crazy. It’s something I didn’t even dream of when I first moved to Owyhee. But once we won the first year, we knew we could keep repeating it.”
Wright said his 38 years in the dugout blew by. He started his head coaching career at his alma mater, Payette, before stops at Minico, Fruitland and Treasure Valley Community College. He built a powerhouse at Fruitland, winning eight state championships there before stepping down to become the school’s athletic director.
But Owyhee lured him back to the diamond, and he built another dynasty out of thin air.
“We talk a lot about today’s kids and all that kind of stuff,” Wright said. “That group is very, very, very old school. They’re kind of a throwback group of young men.
“You can coach them really hard. You can have a high level of expectations, and they just feed off of it.”
MOUNTAIN VIEW 5, LAKE CITY 2
The Mavericks (18-11) jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the second inning to win the third-place trophy for the second straight year.
Carson Lupton scored on a wild pitch, Preston Flournoy stole home, Cade Burnham lifted a sacrifice fly and Evan Perry capped the inning with an RBI single. The Mavericks rolled from there.
Tate Baird earned the win on the mound, holding Lake City (20-7) to two runs on eight hits through five innings. Perry then threw two scoreless innings for the save.
HIGHLAND 9, MIDDLETON 2
The Rams (23-7) erupted for seven runs in the fifth inning to erase a 2-0 deficit and claim the state consolation trophy, Highland’s first state tournament trophy since 2014.
Highland’s Hudson John went 2-for-3 with a double, a triple and two RBIs, and Mason Payne finished 3-for-4 with two RBIs.
Cam Lenius and Brock Silver collected the only two hits for Middleton, which ended the year 22-8.
This story was originally published May 18, 2024 at 9:38 PM.
