Sports
Idaho Prime 13U Super League baseball team finishes summer tourney season
Back row, from left: Coach Nic Hale, Coach Nico Castaneda, Treicyn Pongah-Buckskin, Jax Howe, Diesel Wellard, Marcus Evans, Lucas Gravis, Coach Jason Walker; front row, from left: Madax Kingston, Riggin Montgomery, Levi Colt, Carson Smith, K. Buster Hale, Jace Walker. Not Pictured Coach Ryan Smith.
POCATELLO — The Idaho Prime 13U Super League team had a long summer of playing tournament baseball.
Coached by Jason Walker, Nico Castaneda, Nic Hale and Ryan Smith, Prime played 39 games and played in 6 tournaments going 25-13-1 with the team going 4-2 over the weekend to be back to back Champions in the Bear Lake tournament.
The majority of the Prime team has been playing together since 8U and it is the last season that some of the team will be together with three moving onto high school baseball next season. Each season the team gets a rotation of new players and even coaches, but everyone gets up to speed on what it takes to be a traveling tournament team.
“We have players that travel from Malad and Marsh Valley twice a week for practice and then we are off to a tournaments on the weekends. I can’t thank the parents and grandparents enough for the time on the road getting players to and from practice and tournaments,” Coach Walker said.
Shoshone-Bannock tribal athletes Jace Walker (left) and Treicyn
Pongah-Buckskin were on the Idaho Prime 13U team.
Over the past weekend Prime traveled to Bear Lake to try to defend their championship they won at 12U. Walker said it was going to be a tough road because the tournament combines 13 and 14-year-old teams together for a 20 team tournament split into three divisions. On Thursday Prime lost by one run to Bear Lake 14U team in the bottom of the fourth inning and lost to Freedom Baseball on a walk off run by Freedom in the bottom of the fifth inning.
On Friday Prime got a victory over Evanston, Wyo. in a score of 10-3 and Prime got the 14th seed in the middle bracket.
Saturday the team started the single elimination tournament and Prime beat the Bandits red 14U 3-2 on a play at home in the bottom of the fifth inning to secure the victory and to move onto the semifinals. Treicyn Pongah-Buckskin got the victory with 14 outs over 4 and two-thirds innings.
The semifinal game was Prime vs. ID Rebels and got the victory 3-0 with Jax Howe on the mound. The championship game was Prime vs. Bear River Bears with Jace Walker on the mound. Walker gave up seven hits and three runs (one earned) over six innings to get the victory. Down to their last out Prime was down 1-3 in the sixth inning Kolton “Buster” Hale hit a double bringing Jace Walker and Treicyn Pongah-Buckskin in to tie the score. The game went into extra innings and both teams held each other scoreless in the first extra inning. After a 30 minute lightning delay and bases loaded in the eighth inning Treicyn dropped a bunt down and scored Jax from third on a suicide squeeze and beat the throw to first to put the score at 4-3 and Prime added two more runs to go up 6-3. Prime went to Carson Smith on the mound the last inning and a third to bring home the championship and secure the back to back championship for Prime in the Bear Lake Tournament.
“The team practiced well and knew we would be playing against older teams and did really well playing against older players,” Walker said.
If you are interested in playing for Prime in the 2025 season tryouts are taking place in the coming month. Prime players are either moving up to 14U or could be staying at 13U with the players leaving.
