Glacier splits at home

One rough inning.

The fourth was not kind to the Glacier softball team on Thursday.

Missoula Big Sky scored five runs on five hits and had two walks — one intentional — en route to a 9-7 victory over the host Wolfpack at Kidsports Complex on a wet, cold, gray afternoon.

The Wolfpack downed Missoula Sentinel 7-4 earlier to both avenge a loss from earlier this season and gain a split on the day. A planned third game was called.

“The wheels kind of fell off in the fifth inning. (The Eagles) hit the ball. They had the home run and they were doing some things,” said Glacier coach Joel Bemis.

The Eagles led 4-3 going into the fourth — catcher Kelsey LaVaute hit a 3-run homer in the third and a solo home run in the second.

Big Sky got things rolling right away — three doubles, a single and a fielder’s choice to start the inning.

LaVaute came up again with the bases loaded and no outs. Rather than give her another shot, the Wolfpack elected to put her on base.

“Kelsey LaVaute is quite a hitter. Glacier showed her a lot of respect to walk her with the bases loaded, I’ll tell you what,” said Big Sky coach Dennis Staves.

“That shows a lot of respect for a hitter. She’s dangerous, no doubt,” he said.

That run gave Big Sky a 9-3 lead.

The Wolfpack finally cut a runner down at the plate for the first out of the inning. The next two Eagles lined out to first and struck out.

But the Wolfpack didn’t give up.

“It would have been real easy for our girls to just kind of give up and quit. They didn’t. They tried to make a game of it,” Bemis said.

The Wolfpack scored one run in the bottom of the fourth, then added three runs in the bottom of the sixth.

“Our girls were just believing. They didn’t hang their heads or get down,” Bemis said.

“They just about did (rally). It was just too little, too late. But we played right with them and really gave ourselves a chance at the end.”

“Glacier is a good team. You can’t let them off the hook and we did. Our pitcher did a great job, but we had a few miscues on defense that we normally haven’t been having,” Staves said.

“We gave them a couple opportunities and they took advantage of it. But we held it together when we had to,” he added.

Brittany Franklin and Lyndsey Hoffenbacker were both 2-for-3 with two doubles to lead the Wolfpack. Franklin added four RBIs and Hoffenbacker two.

Bemis believes the day’s results put Glacier (7-2) in second place in Western AA and Big Sky (8-1) into first place.

“I’m real pleased with our senior leadership (Bryttani Knopp, Zoey Pettit, Lyndsey Hoffenbacker and Abby Connolly). Their leadership and their work ethic, showing the younger girls how to build a program. It’s not too often you get girls who have played at both high schools (they were freshmen at Flathead). It’s neat to see all four of them come through the program and contribute so much,” he said.

Kendra Bouley hit a 3-run home run in the second inning to help herself out in the Sentinel game.

“Man it was a lot of fun to watch her do that,” Bemis said.

Bemis was surprised to get the games played.

“All morning in my classroom, I kept looking out the window.

“I’m glad we were able to get them in. Everything is so compressed this time of year, it’s hard to make things up,” he said.

“It would have been tough and it would have meant a lot of scrambling,” he said.

“But those fields at Kidsports can take all kinds of water,” he added.

Glacier 7, Sentinel 4

Sentinel     000 2 002 0 — 4112

Glacier     033 100 x — 781

Whitney Rauckhorst, Mandy Jackson (3) and Riley Cullip. Kendra Bouley and Brittany Franklin. W — Kendra (6-1). L — Rauckhorst.

Sentinel — Ramsie Burrington 1-4, Jamie Jo Kallis 1-2, Katie Focher 2-3, Riley Cullip 1-4, Rauckhorst 0-2, Mandy Jackson 0-2, Lexi Miller 2-4, Nikki Anderson 1-4, Amber Amaya 2-3 Katie Kostelecky 1-3.

HR — Kallis, Anderson; RBIs: Kallis 1, Anderson 1.

Glacier — Zoey Pettit 0-4, Brittany Knopp 1-2, Brittany Franklin 1-2, Lyndsey Hoffenbacker 1-3, Bailee Quay 1-3, Sabrina Kenfield 1-3, Abby Connolly 2-3, Paige Latimer 0-3, Kendra Bouley 1-3.

HR — Bouley; 2B — Franklin, Connolly; RBI: Franklin 1, Hoffenbacker 2, Kenfield 1, Bouley 3.

Big Sky 9, Glacier 7

Big Sky     013     500     0 9112

Glacier     300     103     0 7100

Andrea Walt and Kelsey LaVaute. Jessie Compton, Kendra Bouley (4) and Brittany Franklin. L — Compton (3-2)

Big Sky — Katelyn Kropp 1-4, Baylie Frost 2-5, Kirsten Wagener 2-4, Kelsey LuCostic 0-3, Kelsey LaVaute 2-3, Jesse Schafer 2-5, Rachel White 0-3, Kayla Weishaar 0-2, Kaisha Hollenbeck 2-3.

HR — LaVaute 2; 2B — Frost 1, Schafer 2, Wagener 1; RBI: Kropp 1, Wagener 1, LaVaute 4, Schafer 1, Weishaar 2.

Glacier — Anna Costa 2-3, Pettit 2-4, Franklin 2-3, Hoffenbacker 2-3, Quay 1-3, Kenfield 1-4, Knopp 0-4, Connolly 0-4, Jessie Compton 0-1, Bouley 0-3.

2B — Costa, Pettit, Franklin 2, Hoffenbacker 2; RBIs: Franklin 4, Hoffenbacker 2, Quay 1.