"Iron Nine" finish season undefeated

Just call them Whitehall's Iron Nine.

The reference is to the Whitehall Majors, the age 11-12 baseball team that completed its 2018 season with a perfect record. They were 12-0 in the regular season before going 3-0 in the championship tournament, wrapping up the title in Whitehall on June 2.

In the tournament, the Majors team outscored its three opponents by a staggering 33-3 margin, getting past Three Forks 14-2, Townsend 10-0 and Manhattan 9-1.

Making this team unique is that the roster has only nine players, nine of whom played all 15 games. The other missed one game.

Here's the Iron Nine roster with regular season hitting statistics and averages:

Cy Tebay, 30-for-40, .750; Lane Chase, 24-36, .667; Gavin Watson, 25-41, .610; Aaron DeFrance, 15-27, .556; Gavin French, 18-39, .486; Isaac Skogen, 14-31, .452; Andrew Ball, 15-36, .417; Kace Wagner, 14-35, 400; Taytem Crowley, 8-30, .267. Also playing in one game were Jacob Ryan and Mason Miller, who were regulars on the Whitehall Minors.

In the regular season, Tebay led the team in runs batted in with 33, one more than Chase. DeFrance scored 36 runs and drew 22 walks, leading the team in both categories. Chase scored 32 times.

Chase, Tebay, Watson and French were Whitehall's pitching leaders. The foursome combined to pitch all but one-third of an inning in the 12 games.

In the tournament, the pitching staff allowed only four hits in the three games, which went only 14 innings. Meanwhile, Whitehall rapped 27 hits in 65 at bats, a robust .415 postseason team average.

The 12-game regular season lasted only 51 innings due to the lopsided scores. Most of the games were decided by the 10-run rule after four innings. One game in the regular season was decided by nine runs, the other 11 by 10 or more. Only the title game in the postseason went the full six innings.

They outscored opponents 217-19 in the regular season.

Four players - Chase, Tebay, Watson and Skogen - have played together for the past four years, coached by Joe Chase and Greg Watson. Gary DeFrance joined the coaching staff this season.

"I attribute the success to a lot of hard work and dedication from the kids and their parents," Joe Chase said. "Our pitchers hit their spots and didn't put too many runners on base. At this level, if you don't walk anyone you're going to have a good chance for success."

Lane Chase, Ball, DeFrance and Tebay are continuing their season by playing in several weekend tournaments on the Gallatin Valley 12U all-star traveling team.

This year's Whitehall team consisted of six players from Whitehall, two from Harrison and one from Ennis.

They, indeed, performed well and certainly can be considered the Iron Nine. Their coach agrees.

"I love baseball and it's nice to see it all come together," he said.