Owyhee baseball continues magical run to Idaho state title game after upset of top-seeded Mountain View

“This was really unexpected,” Owyhee pitcher Nick McDaniel said.

CALDWELL - Nick McDaniel didn’t celebrate right away.

The Owyhee junior pitcher started casually walking off the mound looking back at the umpire to make sure he heard the call correctly. A ball that appeared high and inside to Mountain View’s Logan Burrell was surprisingly called a strike three to keep the Storm’s surprise run going in a 2-1 win over the top-seeded Mavericks Friday in the Idaho Class 5A State Baseball semifinals at Wolfe Field.

“I kind of disagree with the call, but I guess we’ll take it,” McDaniel said. “... It was a makeup call, I think.”

But there’s no making this up: The first-year program is heading to the 5A State final where it will play No. 2 Rocky Mountain (22-6) Saturday at 5 p.m.

“This was really unexpected,” McDaniel said. “I mean, we thought we were gonna be decent. But this is completely out of the blue.”

Decent is even putting it lightly for some others on a team that, coming in, only had one player with any real varsity experience. Freshman Keegan Kelly, who provided what would be the game-winning hit in the top of the seventh inning, said he only expected eight wins.

And after losing to Kuna and Middleton by a combined score of 20-1 in two of its first three games, it seemed like maybe that was going to be the case. Owyhee also lost its only player with varsity experience in Cole Rohlmeier to a broken wrist for most of the season.

“If you want in that card game, this is the price of admission,” said Owyhee coach Russ Wright, who won eight state championships with Fruitland. “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.”

Kelly is the epitome of that.

He started the year on junior varsity, but was called up when Rohlmeier went down.

Kelly helped the Storm (19-9) go 7-1 down the stretch to get to state. And Kelly kept it going there, where he delivered probably the biggest hit of his career.

With the game tied 1-1, runners at first and second and two outs, he stepped to the plate. Kelly slapped an RBI single through the gap in left-centerfield on the very first pitch he saw to break the stalemate.

“The nerves were intense,” Kelly said. “But it’s just an AB(at bat). It’s not different than any (other) part of the game.”

So now it was up to McDaniel to finish the job.

McDaniel walked the first batter he faced on four straight pitches, gave up a single to Hunter Hollifield and walked Tyson Grow to load the bases with two outs. But Wright, who made two visits to the mound during the half inning, stuck with him.

The move paid off.

On a full-count to Burrell, McDaniel got the call on the slider to end the game.

“That’s as good as Nick’s pitched all year,” Wright said. “When you ask your kids to show up with your ‘A’ guts, ‘A’ heart, ‘A’ game, he did.”

The Mavericks (22-4) opened the door for Owyhee in the top of the sixth inning with an uncharacteristic mistake. Up 1-0 with two outs, senior Dylan Logsdon misjudged a routine popup in left field. It allowed Cade Walker to get to second base before Rohlmeier knotted the game up on an RBI single to right field.

“All we really needed was that one momentum change,” McDaniel said. “That’s really what drove us to finish it out.”

(All photos by Loren Orr)

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