Wolfpack's 5 runs in 5th sink Pirates

POLSON — Glacier broke open a tie ballgame with a five-run fifth inning and then held off a seventh inning rally by Polson for an 8-6 nonconference softball victory on Thursday.

“When we went up 8-3, that kind of took the wind out of their sails a little bit,” Glacier coach Joel Bemis said.

“Polson is a very good ball team and to beat them you have to play well. That was a good win for us.”

Glacier (13-3 overall) sent 10 batters to the plate in the fifth inning and had five hits. Lyndsey Hoffenbacker had the big blow in that inning with a double.

“Three errors (by us) in the fifth inning, that kind of opened the door for them,” Polson coach Larry Smith said.

 “You can’t give good teams that many chances.”

The game got off to an explosive start when Glacier’s Baylee Quay, the second batter, homered over the left field fence on her first pitch.

Polson answered in the bottom half of the inning when leadoff hitter Staci Benson, a senior switch hitter, sent the first pitch over the center field fence. Polson scored three runs in that inning and three more in the seventh.

 Glacier scored once in the first, second and third innings.

“We kind of chipped away, got runners on base, hit the ball at the right time and scored a run in each of those innings,” Bemis said.

“A couple times we did it with two outs.”

The victory was the third straight for Glacier, which plays at Libby today, 6 p.m.

Polson (9-3) plays at Columbia Falls today, 5:30 p.m.

“I thought it was a very good game to be part of,” Smith said.

“We definitely felt we could have won it.”

Glacier    111    050    0    —    8    9    4

Polson    300    000    3    —    6    9    3

Kendra Bouley and Brittany Franklin; Shalaina Duford and Kayla Duford. W — Bouley (9 hits, 8 strikeouts, 3 walks). L — S. Duford.

GLACIER — Anna Costa 0-3, Baylee Quay 1-4, Franklin 1-4, Lyndsey Hoffenbacker 2-4, Abby Connolly 2-4, Sabrina Kenfield 1-4, Zoey Pettit 1-4, Bryttani Knopp 1-3, Bouley 0-4.