Lakers top Monarchs in regular-season finale

The Daily Inter Lake

The Kalispell Lakers' late-season surge has earned the team a trip to the Class AA American Legion state baseball tournament.

The Lakers rallied past the Medicine Hat Monarchs 7-6 on Monday at Griffin Field to finish with a 13-11 league mark, 32-27 overall.

Kalispell wound up winning eight of its final 10 league games to earn the last berth from the Western Division into the state tournament, which begins Saturday in Great Falls. The Lakers will face the Billings Scarlets in the opening round.

"We were 5-9 at one point," said Lakers coach Ryan Malmin of his team's league mark.

"We crunched the numbers (to see what we needed to do to get to state), but the bottom line is we knew we had to win. We were fortunate to string along eight out of 10 conference wins."

Medicine Hat took a 6-3 lead on the Lakers after five innings, but Kalispell rallied for four runs in the sixth to pull it out.

Kalispell came into the final two days of the season needing a victory over Medicine Hat while Lethbridge, also battling for a state berth, had to at least split with the Missoula Mavericks.

Missoula wound up winning both games, 13-3 Sunday and 7-6 Monday, making the Lakers' final game meaningless.

"We came out kinda flat today (because of that)," said Malmin.

"But we picked it up at the end."

Stefan Malkuch had a big day on the mound and at the plate for Kalispell.

He fanned 10, walked three and gave up seven hits in going the distance.

Then he went 3-for-4 hitting to power the Lakers on offense.

The Lakers will take the day off today, then have practices scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday at 6 p.m.

After a light workout early Friday, the squad heads for Great Falls.

This will be the Lakers' third-straight state tournament appearance.

LAKERS 7, MONARCHS 6

Medicine Hat 102 030 0 - 6 7 1

Kalispell 002 014 x - 7 9 1

Cam Rittinger and B. Rintool; Stefan Malkuch and Jake Fitzsimmons. W - Malkuch (7 hits, 3 walks, 10 strikeouts). L - Rittinger.

Medicine Hat - Jason Reeder 1-3, Rintool 0-2, Justin Thompson 0-3, Brendyn Alnz 1-3, Lee Fruson 1-3, Mike Lewis 2-4, Travis Ozdan 1-4, Rittinger 1-3, Bruce Forester 0-3.

Kalispell - Malkuch 3-4, Dan Conners 1-3, Fitzsimmons 1-4, John White 0-3, Adam Olson 0-2, Zach Davis 1-3, Austin Zapata 1-3, Tucker Hankinson 0-2, Chris Hooley 2-2.

HRs-Reeder; RBIs-NA.