Wildkat 9 knock out Loggers to open season

The Daily Inter Lake

Lions, Pirates win, too

LIBBY - Look out for the Wildkats.

Freshman Drew Walters picked up the victory from the circle and had two RBIs Friday to help lead the Columbia Falls High School girls softball team in opening the season with a 5-0 victory over Libby.

The Loggers played for last season's state championship.

Knotted in a scoreless tie going into the fourth inning, Loggers committed two errors and the Wildkats scored three unearned runs. Sophomore catcher Amanda James scored the game's first run on an error after leading off the inning with a single. Junior Lindsey Nelson highlighted the inning with an RBI single.

James went 3-for-4 with a triple and sophomore shortstop Amanda Milliard went 2-for-4 as the Wildkats combined for nine hits.

Senior pitcher Jenni Johnson got the start and pitched two solid innings before giving way to Walters in the middle innings. Then Johnson closed the game by pitching the seventh inning.

Johnson finished with three innings of work, allowing one hit and two walks while striking out two. Walters pitched four innings, giving up three hits while striking out seven.

"She throws a nice ball," Libby coach Dean Thompson said. "We had four girls strike out looking."

Brooke Hageness, an all-state pitcher, was hung with the loss after pitching 5 2/3 innings. She allowed eight hits and no walks while striking out six.

"We just didn't get the bats going," Thompson said. "And committing two errors in the one inning didn't help our cause. We should have gotten out of that inning. But give credit to Columbia Falls. They had nine hits."

The Loggers fell to 1-1 on the season after beating Eureka on Tuesday, 16-4. Laice Dedrick picked up the victory from the circle in the season opener.

C. Falls 000 311 0 - 5 9 2

Libby 000 000 0 - 0 4 0

Jenni Johnson, Drew Walters (3), Johnson (7) and Amber James. Brooke Hageness, Laice Dedrick (6) and Shelby Barton. W - Walters (1-0). L - Hageness (0-1).

COLUMBIA FALLS (1-0, 1-0) - Sami Venezio 0-4, Amanda Milliard 2-4, Venesha Riley 1-4, James 3-4, Kayla Stinger 1-4, Lindsey Nelson 1-3, Brittany White 0-4, Cedar Smith 0-2, Johnson 0-1, Walters 1-2.

LIBBY (1-1, 1-1) - Hageness 1-4, Nickole Lapka 0-2, Barton 0-3, Dedrick 1-2, Megan Wedel 0-2, Sami Freebury 2-3, Christina Shilling 0-3, Ashley Barnett 0-2, Crystal Shriner 0-1, Holly Cirian 0-2, Jordan Refsland 0-1.

RBIs - CF (Stringer, Nelson, Walters 2), Lib. 0. 3B - CF 1 (James).

Eureka 8, Whitefish 2

EUREKA - Amy Roberts pitched a gem and April Paden hit an inside-the-park home run to help lead Eureka to its first victory of the season.

Roberts spread six hits and one walk over seven inning while striking out eight to improve her record to 1-1 on the season.

Sophomore catcher Adrianna Lundberg hit an RBI single in the first inning to get things started and Paden added her three-run homer in the second.

All told, the Lions outhit the Bulldogs 8-6.

Lundberg went 3-for-4 to lead the Lions. Haley Mortensen went 2-for-3 to pace Whitefish.

Whitefish 002 000 0 - 2 6 3

Eureka 130 310 0 - 8 8 4

Torey Ost, Shasta Bazzard (6) and Desiree Clark. Amy Roberts and Adrianna Lundberg. W - Roberts (1-1). L - Ost (0-1)

WHITEFISH (0-1) - Maude Gwiazdon 1-3, Lexi Day 1-4, Clarke 0-3, Shaundra Savage 0-3, Camille Williams 0-3, Torey Ost 1-3, Devyn Ost 1-3, Haley Mortensen 2-3, Nicole Schelling 0-3.

EUREKA (1-1) - April Paden 1-3, Kim Blonshine 1-4, Lundberg 3-4, Roberts 1-3, Catherine Wimbley 0-3, Carly Hammond 1-2, Ayries Blanck 1-2, Auna Lawler 0-2, Klairee Shay 0-3.

RBIs - Wf. n/a, Eur. n/a. HR - Paden. 2B - Roberts.

Polson 8, Frenchtown 1

FRENCHTOWN - Lindsey Rafter hit a two-run double, Frenchtown committed nine errors and Dylen Zetterberg picked up her second victory of the season as Polson dumped the Broncs in a rematch of last year's state consolation game.

The Pirates were outhit 7-3 in the victory. Catcher Brittany Jones went 2-for-3 to lead the way from the No. 8 spot in the batting order.

Polson scored two runs apiece in the first and second innings and never looked back.

Kelly Reed went 3-for-3 to pace Frenchtown. Mandy Holloron picked up the loss.

Polson 220 400 0 - 8 3 1

Frenchtown 001 000 0 - 1 7 9

Dylen Zetterberg and Brittany Jones. Mandy Holloron and Kelly Engwall. W - Zetterberg (2-0). L - Holloron (0-1).

POLSON (2-0) - Kyla McDonald 0-4, Zetterberg 1-3, Lindsey Rafter 1-3, Jaelin Vandeberg 0-4, Amanda James 0-4, Kendra Wolstad 0-3, Sarah Newton 0-3, Jones 2-3, Maggie Gordon 0-3,

FRENCHTOWN (0-1) - Shelby Russ 2-3, Alex Duncan 0-3, Noelle Lebsock 0-3, Engwall 1-3, Jennifer Chapman 0-2, Holloron 0-3, Lauren Lofts 1-3, Kelly Reed 3-3, Kali Bennett 0-3.

RBIs - Pol. 2 (Rafter 2). 2B - Pol. 1 (Rafter), Ftn. 1 (Lofts).