Knights, Boutkan replicate strong opener from a week ago

By Sean Rooney on July 28, 2017.

srooney@medicinehatnews.com @MHNRooney

It was the best possible form of deja vu Thursday for the K of C Knights.

For the second tournament in a row the Medicine Hat American Legion baseball team began with a dominant performance, enforcing the mercy rule in a 12-2, six-inning win over the Miles City Mavericks.

“We had the first game of the tournament in districts, now we have the first game of the tournament here,” coach Lane Aman said of the 9 a.m. start at the Montana-Alberta State A tournament. “It was kind of a similar thing.”

The Knights would happily be in the final this weekend too, though to advance they’ll need to win it.

Ethan Boutkan — who also pitched the opener of the North District tournament — went a complete game while letting up five hits and striking out six Mavericks. He also went 3-for-3 at the plate plus a walk and hit by a pitch, scoring three runs and driving in four.

“It’s kind of habit now,” Aman said of the Knights’ ace. “It kind of sends a message, teams have to take note of us 10-running a team coming into the tournament.”

Cleanup hitter Wyatt Bergen had two doubles, Medicine Hat got five runs in the bottom of the first and Boutkan ended proceedings with an RBI hit in the bottom of the sixth.

Miles City made four errors as well.

“I don’t think they had their best game against us, they booted the ball around a little bit and we took advantage of it,” said Aman.

Next up in the double elimination event is Belgrade, which shut out Kalispell 3-0. The Knights got to watch that game and can hope they saw Belgrade’s ace, though their opposition might be equally happy not having to face Boutkan.

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