For the last couple months, Rocky Mountain baseball has been the main talk around school. Last year Rocky was cut short of a district championship, so the team practiced and prepared months before the season opener started. They practiced new coaching abilities, batting, play calling, base running, and recognizing signs. With all this preparation, Rocky was truly a state championship contender in all of Idaho. Also, with all the new incoming freshman, it would really fit the gaps that stopped Rocky from a championship the previous year.

Rocky Mountain started the season off very strong with 6 consecutive wins after the first home opener loss against Owyhee. They battled and battled and came up with 6 more wins to qualify for the play in game to get into the district regional championship against Mountain View. They came to win this game in a low scoring game of 3-0. With all this on the line, most social media platforms/news lines/Idaho game recaps never thought of Rocky being this close to elimination with all the work they put into this organization during the off season.

Rocky then took a bus ride up a couple hours to battle against Middleton in a play in game to get into the Idaho district tournament. After 3 hours of nonstop play, Rocky didn’t make it out on top. They took the loss 5-0, and Middleton got the last seed into the state district tournament. After all the local talk, Rocky failed to succeed in what they were built up to be at the end of the season, and just like that the season was over without any play in the state tournament.

3 big stars on varsity had an opportunity to explain what they felt after returning to school from the heart-breaking loss. First Jordan Ellet, junior, center fielder commented, “After all, we worked our butts off and I think we really improved as a team. Sometimes we have good seasons, bad seasons, sometimes we have good games, bad games. I felt like we really left our potential on the field and didn’t play like we should have.” Secondly, Wesley Thompson, junior, short stop commented, “Ultimately, we can’t go back and be sad and lay around thinking what we could have done better, we must keep our heads up, get back to working and come back stronger next season to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again. Although we had all the talk around Rocky, doesn’t mean we aren’t human and make mistakes.” Lastly, Jake Matson, junior, pitcher commented, “I think this loss only made us more determined to come back stronger next year especially because were seniors and next year means our last year, we need to give Rocky another trophy and show them why we kept working and didn’t lie around after we lost.” As you can see, only work can be done from here and only improvement is needed for things to change.

Overall, Rocky baseball left some things on the field that stopped them from proving that they were the best team in Idaho. The only thing they can do is build up and focus as a team to make sure Rocky gets a trophy next year!