Lakers break even with Med Hat

The Daily Inter Lake

The Kalispell Lakers closed out the regular season in dramatic fashion Sunday afternoon, rallying for a 5-4 victory over Medicine Hat and a doubleheader split with the Monarchs at Griffin Field.

Medicine Hat took the opener, 15-2.

Kalispell finished second in the Western Division with a 14-10 league mark, 37-28 overall. The Lakers now head to Bozeman for the AA American Legion baseball tournament, which gets under way Saturday.

Kalispell will play Bozeman at 8 p.m.

"It's a tough draw, it's the night game, there will be a lot of people there (cheering for Bozeman)," said Kalispell coach Mike McFarland.

Bozeman is the No. 3 finisher from the Eastern Division.

Medicine Hat jumped out to a 6-0 lead on the Lakers after four innings in the opener and exploded for eight runs in the seventh inning. McFarland said Laker starting pitcher Stefan Malkuch had his back tighten up in the third inning. Sam Freudenberg finished up.

"All I had left for pitching was Ben Mathiason and Geoff Hogan," said McFarland.

"I wanted to save both of those guys for the second game."

Mathiason went the distance in Game 2, checking Medicine Hat on six hits.

The Lakers jumped out to a 3-1 lead after one inning, but trailed 4-3 heading into the fourth.

Carl Christianson started off the bottom half of that inning by reaching on an infield error and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Freudenberg.

A sacrifice fly by Malkuch advanced Christianson to third.

Dan Conners then reached on an infield error, which scored Christianson.

Jake Fitzsimmons followed with a double down the left field line to score Conners.

Freudenberg made a major league play in the final inning, robbing a Medicine Hat batter of a shot down the left field line.

"Diving stop over the bag," said McFarland of Freudenberg at third.

"Jumped to his feet, threw the guy out by a half step for the second out. We didn't want anybody on (base) at that point."

Mathiason then struck out the next Medicine Hat hitter to end the contest.

"It turned out all right," said McFarland.

"We just needed to win one to make it for certain, to get the second seed."

By winning the second game, Missoula sneaked into the state tournament mix. If Flathead had lost both games, Missoula would have been eliminated from postseason action.

The Mavericks are two-time defending division champions.

The top four teams from the Eastern and Western divisions move on to state tournament action.

MONARCHS 15, LAKERS 2

Medicine Hat 201 301 8 - 15 12 2

Kalispell 000 002 0 - 2 3 1

Bruce Forester and Dan Theodan; Stefan Malkuch, Sam Freudenberg (6) and Jake Fitzsimmons. W - Forester. L - Malkuch.

Medicine Hat - Mike Lewis 1-3, Theodan 2-4, Cam Rittinger 1-4, Chris Simons 2-5, Forester 1-4, Brad Rintoul 2-4, Tyson Heller 2-4, Adam Muryn 1-4, Travis Ozdan 1-5.

Kalispell - Malkuch 0-2, Dan Conners 1-3, Fitzsimmons 0-3, Geoff Hogan 1-3, Nick Hergesheimer 0-3, Craig Olson 0-3, Matt Venturini 1-3, Chris Hooley 0-3, Freudenberg 0-2.

2B-Theodan, Rintoul; RBIs-Not available.

LAKERS 5, MONARCHS 4

Medicine Hat 103 000 0 - 4 6 1

Kalispell 300 200 x - 5 8 0

Mike Lewis and Dan Theodan; Ben Mathiason and Carl Christianson. W - Mathiason. L - Lewis.

Medicine Hat - Lewis 1-3, Theodan 2-3, Cam Rittinger 1-2, Chris Simons 1-3, Bruce Forester 1-3, Taylor Patience 0-3, Tyson Heller 0-3, Adam Muryn 0-3, Cory McCran 0-2, Brad Rintoul 0-1.

Kalispell - Stefan Malkuch 2-4, Dan Conners 0-3, Jake Fitzsimmons 2-3, Geoff Hogan 2-3, Nick Hergesheimer 0-3, Craig Olson 1-3, Matt Venturini 1-3, Christianson 0-2, Sam Freudenberg 0-3.

2B-Fitzsimmons; RBIs-Medicine Hat not available; Hogan, Hergesheimer, Venturini, Fitzsimmons.