Elias Blackhawk looked down at his index finger, a white bandage covering a mystery injury. Was it cut? Broken? He wasn’t sure, but he didn’t exactly care in the moment, because that finger had just helped him lay down one of the most important bunt of his life.
He executed it only minutes earlier. His Razorbacks faced a tricky situation: Single-A state tournament, tied in the bottom of the seventh against the Pocatello Rebels, the city’s other single-A team, and the Razorbacks had a runner on first. He moved up to second on a wild pitch. Then Blackhawk showed bunt, got a pitch near his forehead, but he put the bat on it, producing a soft bunt down the first-base line.
Only the Rebels couldn’t complete the throw to first. The ball caromed off first baseman Cody Mortenson’s glove, giving baserunner Kannon Kunz time to jog across the plate, sealing the Razorbacks’ 6-5, walk-off win. They are moving on in the tournament, facing Minico at 7 p.m. Friday.
That’s when the Razorbacks met at the plate, mobbed Kunz, jumped up and down, celebrated how teenagers celebrate. Except they didn’t exactly lose control, didn’t quite act like they had just won the Powerball.
“We’re supposed to be the better single-A team,” Razorbacks coach Mikee Blackhawk said.
Bingo. The Razorbacks were expected to win this one. They operate at a level above the Rebels, which puts them in a spot where they can only really lose in this situation: Win the game, and they do what they should anyway. Lose, and they suffer a particularly ugly upset. For the Razorbacks, the only way to avoid looking bad was to take care of business.
Thing is, Razorbacks and Rebels players are friends with each other. They go to the same schools, hang out in the same circles. After Wednesday’s Razorbacks game, players from both squads needled each other, talking smack, telling each other how they’re for sure winning on Thursday night.
That’s fun and all before the game. During the game, well…
“Well, it makes it kinda hard,” Elias Blackhawk said, “because it’s kinda hard to focus because you’re just playing against friends.”
It’s a unique dynamic. Few cities share these circumstances. Most areas only have enough kids to assemble one double-A team and one single-A squad. In Pocatello, there are enough to fill out two single-A teams, which is why both the Razorbacks and Rebels exist. It’s just that few expected them to meet in the state tournament. “Before the game, everyone was saying they were going to beat us,” Elias Blackhawk said. “So that kind of made us a little angry.”
Blackhawk played like it. In the fifth frame, he recognized fastball and roped it into center field, scoring a pair and untying the game. The Razorbacks took a 4-2 lead. Three batters later, Garrett Keller skied a sacrifice fly into left field, allowing Alex Romreill to score from third. Even more cushion.
Only minutes later, it popped. In the top of the seventh, Blackhawk took the mound and promptly loaded the bases with nobody out, leading Mikee Blackhawk to replace him with Keller. He yielded a run-scoring single, helping the Rebels draw within 5-4. One batter later, Mortenson poked a single into right, scoring another run. Tie game.
Then the weirdest play of all unfolded: On a two-strike count, Flynn laced a ball into center field, which was out No. 2. Mortenson thought it was No. 3. He went flying around the bases, only for the Razorbacks to step on second base, doubling him off and ending the inning.
That set the stage for the Razorbacks to end the game in two at-bats — and one injury.
“It could just be cut,” Elias Blackhawk said.
If he sounded encouraged in the face of a potentially nasty injury, well, Blackhawk has experience shaking off dire circumstances. “I played for Century,” Blackhawk said. “We had a tough season.” Translation: The Diamondbacks slogged through a winless campaign. That was hard on Blackhawk then, but months later, it’s paid dividends in some ways. Now he has a thick bandage to show for it.
“I’ve kinda learned to keep my head up when things go bad,” Blackhawk said. “It wasn’t my day on the mound. I couldn’t let that carry over to my at-bat. That’d be selfish.”
Greg Woods is a sports reporter at the Idaho State Journal. Follow him on Twitter at GregWWoods.
