FHS splits twin bill

Flathead softball coach Dale Beerman had a question for the Bravettes after the fifth inning of the second game of Saturday's Class AA doubleheader.

"Are you girls going to bail out on us here or what?" the first-year coach wanted to know.

It was a legitimate question.

The Bravettes had beaten Helena 3-0 in the first game, but the situation in the second game looked fairly grim as they trailed Helena 7-0.

"It got pretty ugly," the coach said of the previous innings.

But the Bravettes made a couple lineup changes.

"At that time and at 7-0, I think you should put some kids in," Beerman said.

And then Flathead started to hit the ball.

"We just kept bunting and stealing. They kept throwing it away. You've got to put the ball in play," said Beerman.

They didn't make it quite all the way back, but the Bravettes (5-5, 3-5) did score seven runs over the next two innings before falling 8-7.

Both of Saturday's games count in the Western AA conference standings.

"I'm proud because they fought back," the coach said after the second game. "They didn't crawl in a hole."

Flathead scored five runs in the sixth inning.

That all started with senior Rachel Bennett's one-out single to right center. She stole second. Liz Dwyer followed that with a double down the left field line and they both scored on catcher Ashley Fusaro's single.

A fielder's choice, a single, an RBI walk and a Helena error had Flathead right back in the game.

The only problem was the Bravettes gave up one last run in the top of the seventh.

That gave Helena an 8-5 lead - and that turned out to be one run too many to try and make up.

Still…

"I'm happy," Beerman said.

"Not totally happy. It would have been nice to come back and win 9-8. But to come back seven runs - in fastpitch - is a lot of runs.

"We scared (the Bengals). They know we're around and we're not going away," he added.

The first game, though, was everything for which he could have hoped.

"We played well. No errors. We played really good solid ball," Beerman said.

The Bravettes manufactured three runs in the first game. They scored one in the first inning, then added two more in the third.

"We scored in the third, and held them for four innings," Beerman said.

"Britanni (Danielson) threw well," he said.

He also complimented the play of senior shortstop Brandi Boreson, who had two of Flathead's three hits and scored two runs.

"She's a good player. She comes to play," the coach said.

Spencyr Schmaltz was 3-for-4 in the second game with an RBI and Fusaro was 2-for-4 with two RBIs.

The Bravettes travel Tuesday to Missoula to take on Sentinel at 4 p.m.

BRAVETTES 3, BENGALS 0

R H E

Helena 000 000 0 - 0 7 1

Flathead 102 000 x - 3 3 1

Amanda Heller and Veronica Johnson. Britanni Danielson and Ashley Dwyer. W - Danielson (2-3).

Helena - Drew Mihelish 1-4, Mackenzie Clark 0-3, Veronica Johnson 1-3, Amanda Heller 0-2, Natasha Kearney 1-3, Karissa FensterMacher 1-3, Krisen Delure 1-3, Stephanie Demars 1-3, Danni Boyle 1-3.

Flathead - Brandi Boreson 2-3, Rachel Bennett 0-3, Liz Dwyer 1-2, Ashley Fusaro 0-3, Amanda Lidstrom 0-3, Spencyr Schmaltz 0-2, Christina Zorn 0-2, Leslie Quay 0-2, Britanni Danielson 0-2.

BENGALS 8, BRAVETTES 7

Helena 400 300 1 - 8 8 1

Flathead 000 005 2 - 7 11 0

Amanda Heller and Veronica Johnson. Brianne Compton and Ashley Fusaro. W - Heller.

HR - Johnson (H). 2B - Fusaro (F).

Helena - Mihelish 0-4, Clark 1-3, Johnson 2-3, Heller 0-3, Kearney 1-4, Demars 2-4, Boyle 0-4, FensterMacher 1-3, Delure 1-3.

RBIs: Johnson 3, Demars 2, Heller 1, Boyle 1, FensterMacher 1.

Flathead - Boreson 1-4, Bennett 0-2, Dwyer 1-2, Fusaro 2-4, Lidstrom 0-2, Heather Haegele 1-2, Schmaltz 3-4, Brianne Compton 0-3, Brittney Nelson 0-3, Zorn 0-1.

RBIs: Fusaro 3, Schmaltz 1, Compton 1, Nelson 1, Zorn 1.