Lakers 'upbeat' heading to state play

Excited. Healthy. Confident.

The Kalispell Lakers are all those things as they take off today for the Class AA American Legion Baseball Tournament at Bozeman's Heroes Park.

"We've had a couple of good practices the last couple nights. We're real up. Very upbeat," said head coach Mike McFarland.

"(The Lakers) feel good about themselves, no doubt about it. I think they're pretty focused. I couldn't get them any more ready than they are now," he said.

"Everybody has looked real sharp."

The tournament begins at 9 a.m. Saturday and continues through Wednesday.

Saturday's schedule is as follows: the Billings Scarlets (54-14 overall, 14-6 league) and Great Falls Stallions (28-22, 12-12) start things off at 9 a.m., followed by Billings Royals (43-13, 14-5) vs. Missoula Mavs (28-42, 12-12) at 12:30 p.m. and the defending state champion Lethbridge Spitz Elks (25-22, 14-10) vs. Butte Miners (24-33, 10-9) at 4:30.

An opening ceremony is set for 7 p.m.

Last, but not least, will be the Lakers (37-28, 14-10) vs. host Bozeman (39-16, 12-8) at approximately 7:30.

Kalispell hasn't seen the Bucks, the third seed from the East, this year, but did play them a year ago.

"They didn't lose much," McFarland said.

"They hit the ball pretty well, they're very aggressive on the basepaths. They're a good team."

The Lakers plan to start Craig Olson (7-4) in Saturday's game.

"He's excited," McFarland said of the lefty.

"One of the reasons we want Craig to pitch, he kind of likes the pressure … starting quarterback pressure," the coach said.

"He's probably going to have some butterflies, but he always competes. I'm glad he's there.

"Ideally, we'll score a couple runs early and try to take the crowd out of it. But if that doesn't happen, we'll still be okay - as long as we don't give up any big innings," he said.

If the Lakers prevail, they'll play the winner of the Royals/Mavericks at 7:30 p.m. Sunday. If they lose, they'll play the loser of that game at 12:30 p.m.

One other bit of good news for Kalispell is that it may have Michael Crail back for the tournament - at least to pitch a bit.

Crail has a partial tendon tear in his right knee and hasn't played since the Sapa-Johnsrud tournament in early July.

"It doesn't bother him to pitch, but we would probably DH for him and things like that," McFarland said.