Local Sports

The 4A High Country Conference announced its all-conference teams Thursday, naming Gatorade Idaho Player of the Year Dax Whitney from Blackfoot as the district’s player of the year.

A Blackfoot baseball player has won the Gatorade Idaho Baseball Player of the Year award for the first time ever, and not surprisingly, it’s Dax Whitney.

Among the waves of banners hanging in the Sugar-Salem High School Gym, none of them were baseball banners, until this week. The Sugar-Salem Baseball team raised its first state title banner Wednesday.

The high school sports season finished with a weekend full of spring state tournaments, and five local teams can call themselves state champions.

Spring sports have come to an end in Idaho, and for two of our local teams on Saturday, it was the perfect day.

Exhilaration quickly turned into heartbreak for the Challis-Mackay Rivercats Friday night, when a five-run seventh inning comeback was erased by a Grangeville walkoff in the 2A baseball semifinals.

One local team is heading to the 2A baseball semifinals, while two others suffer close defeats. Challis-Mackay is moving on, but Malad and Firth are now in the consolation bracket.

In the 3A state play-in game on Saturday at Halliwell Park, the South Fremont baseball team came out on top against Buhl 5-2.

In the 2A Nuclear Conference district championship on Saturday, the Challis-Mackay Rivercats took home the district title with a 9-6 victory over Firth.

The Blackfoot Broncos are district champions thanks to a two-game sweep of the Bonneville Bees in the 4A High Country Championship Thursday.

The Pocatello Thunder are used to winning close games at this time of the year, and they did it again Wednesday, defeating Century 3-2 to win the 4A South East Idaho Conference and return to the state tournament.