Pistorese pitches in for Lakers

WHITEFISH - The call came a day early, but Joe Pistorese answered superbly.

Already down 4-0 to the Glacier Twins in the first inning, the Class AA Kalispell Lakers called on their ace left-hander from center field to stop the bleeding.

He did even more than that.

Pistorese struck out 17 batters, including eight straight heading int

the final at-bat, and knocked in four runs as the Lakers rallied back for a 13-4 Western AA conference win on a clear Tuesday night at Memorial Field, the site of today's 26th annual Sapa-Jonsrud Memorial Tournament.

"It was good to see our kids respond," Lakers head coach Ryan Malmin said.

"We struggled a little bit in that first inning and we ran ourselves out of a couple innings but Joe came in and did what he needed to do and offensively we did what we needed to do."

With eye-black smeared under his red ballcap and his pant legs hiked up over his red socks, Pistorese was every bit himself, one of the state's best pitchers in recent memory. The Flathead High senior, who threw a perfect game against the Twins in nine innings in Whitefish on May 25, allowed only three hits and one walk and retired the final 13 batters in 8 2/3 innings Tuesday.

"I was just finding a groove, hitting my spots and establishing first pitch strikes, that was definitely the biggest thing," he said.

The Lakers' heralded ace was slated to start today's tournament game against Chino, but with the season winding down rapidly and a state tournament berth floating east, there was no time to waste.

"That's exactly what we needed (from Pistorese)," Malmin said. "He's a pretty talented kid and when he throws strikes he's tough to beat."

The Lakers got a little help from the Twins in the fourth inning as Glacier unraveled defensively. After a pair of costly Twins errors put Kalispell on the scoreboard, Pistorese scored on an Alex Stanley single to tie the game at 4-all. Dominic Eickert followed right up with a 3-run homer down the leftfield line and suddenly the Lakers were in control.

Glacier finished with seven errors overall.

"We came out swinging the bats pretty well but we had a couple errors in that fourth inning. After that Pistorese was solid and shut us down," Glacier coach Lindsey Fansler said. "Seven errors, you're not going to win a lot of ballgames that way. Hats off to (Pistorese), he came down and stopped the bleeding and came through for his team."

In the fifth inning, Pistorese belted a 2-run homer and finished the game with four RBIs along with Eickert. Michael O'Connell added a double for Kalispell.

Carl Talsma had an RBI triple to start the scoring for Glacier in the first and Dustin VonFeldt followed with an RBI double.

The Lakers (7-8 in conference, 27-16 overall) and Twins (1-14, 16-25) start tournament play today. The Lakers take on the Chino Reds at 5 p.m. and the Twins face Gonzaga Prep at 8 p.m.

Kalispell 000 721 021 - 13 9 1

Glacier 400 000 000 - 4 8 7

Mario Venturini, Joe Pistorese (1) and Zach Brosten. Cody Hill, Trevor Miller (5) and Jeremy Nielson. W - Pistorese (17 strikeouts, 1 walk in 8 2/3); L - Hill.

KALISPELL - Dean Stimpson 1-4, Marshall Boyland 0-5, Michael O'Connell 1-3, Pistorese 2-4, Brosten 1-5, Dillon Matteson 0-1, Mat O'Brien 1-3, Alex Stanley 1-5, Dominic Eickert 2-5.

2B - O'Connell; HR - Pistorese, Eickert; RBI - Pistorese (4), Eickert (4), Stanley, Matteson.

GLACIER - Kyler Blades 1-3, Carl Talsma 1-4, Dustin VonFeldt 1-3, Miller 0-4, Cody Elek 2-4, Nielson 1-4, Kyle Knox 1-4, Geoff Streeter 0-1, Kyle Yogodzinski 1-4, Zach Maassen 1-3.

2B - VonFeldt; 3B - Talsma; RBI - VonFeldt, Talsma, Yogodzinski, Knox.

26th annual Sapa-Jonsrud Memorial Tournament

at Memorial Field in Whitefish

Tuesday-Saturday

Tuesday's Scores

Apple Valley Packers 8, Lethbridge Spitz Elks 6

Chino Reds 15, Pullman Patriots 2

Wednesday's Schedule

11 a.m. — Pullman vs. Apple Valley

2 p.m. — Lethbridge Spitz Elks vs. Gonzaga Prep

5 p.m. — Kalispell Lakers vs. Chino Reds

8 p.m. — Glacier Twins vs. Gonzaga Prep