Lakers falter in tourney

Calgary skipper Bryan Allen looked at his team's schedule for this year's Canadian Days tournament and found out when they were playing the Lakers, that way he knew when to use his ace.

It paid off.

Donovan Feenstra allowed one run in eight innings and struck out nine in a pitcher's duel on Saturday that ended in extra-innings, 3-1 in the Redbirds' favor on the second-day of the Canadian Days American Legion baseball tournament at Griffin Field.

Feenstra went pitch for pitch with Kalispell's Mario Venturini, who had seven strikeouts, and kept the Redbirds at bay until the top of the eighth.

With the score knotted at 1-apiece, a Calgary runner was put on second base due to the tournament's extra-inning rule. Venturini struck out the first batter and got the next one out via a pop-up to second baseman Dean Stimpson. But the Redbirds had a two-out rally left in them and drove in back-to-back runs with RBI singles that the Lakers couldn't answer.

In the bottom of the eighth, Feenstra allowed only his fifth hit of the game before retiring the side with a pair of pop flies.

Making its first appearance at the annual Kalispell tourney, Calgary improved to 2-1 in tournament play while Kalispell (11-5) dropped its first game of the weekend.

"It was probably the best baseball game we've been in all year, easily," Allen said. "Our ace went out and threw strikes all game. That's all we could ask for. We saved him for Kalispell and he went out and did what he had to do. And we got some hits when we needed to."

The Lakers came into the game hot off a 7-5 win against Trail earlier in day. But the offense stopped there. The lone extra base hit came from Dillon Matteson, who kept up his recent batting streak with a double in the opening inning. Matteson advanced to third but Feenstra struck out the next two in what became a familiar story for the Lakers - runners stranded. Matteson had a pair of doubles in the early game.

"Both pitchers did a great job on the hill," Lakers coach Ryan Malmin said. "But we felt like we ran ourselves out of a couple of innings ... Give those guys credit, they did a great job."

Marshall Boyland hit a game-tying line drive with a full count in the bottom of the fourth for the lone Laker RBI.

While the offense sputtered, the Lakers defense shined besides a miscue in the first. Kalispell put together three double plays and played error-free ball through eight.

"We did a good job of staying in it and Mario did a good job," Malmin said. "It was a good game. It was just unfortunate that we couldn't finish it."

Tournament play wraps up today with three AA games, including the championship finale at 3:30 p.m. The A games continue at adjacent Archie Roe throughout the day as well.

Calgary 100 000 02 - 3 7 0

Kalispell 000 100 00 - 1 5 0

WP - Donovan Feenstra (nine strikeouts, four walks, one hit by batter through eight innings); LP - Mario Venturini (seven strikeouts, four walks, one hit batter through eight innings)

CALGARY - Miles Hunter 1-3, N. Savoy 1-4, L. Franklin 2-3, C. Yankevlan 1-3, A. Malone 1-3, S. Lichiss 1-3, K. Sanderson 0-2, A. Roth 0-0, M. Sanderson 0-2, P. Adair 0-3.

2B - Lichiss; RBI - Franklin, Yankevlan.

KALISPELL - Dean Stimpson 0-3, Dillon Matteson 1-2, Mike O'Connell 1-4, Zach Brosten 1-4, Joe Pistorese 1-4, Alex Stanley 1-2, Marshall Boyland 1-2, Mat O'Brien 0-3.

2B - Matteson; RBI - Boyland

Kalispell 7, Trail 5

Kalispell 032 101 - 7 11 1

Trail 100 040 - 5 5 1

WP - Mat O'Brien (eight strikeouts through six innings)

KALISPELL - Dean Stimpson 1-2, Dillon Matteson 2-4, Mike O'Connell 1-4, Zach Brosten 1-2, Mat O'Brien 0-1, Joe Pistorese 1-4, Alex Stanley 2-3, Marshall Boyland 1-1, Dominic Eickert 0-2, Greg Seaman 1-2, Cody Dopps 1-3.

2B - Matteson (2); RBI - Seaman, Stanley, Pistorese, Stimpson

TRAIL - Jeff Sidey 0-2, Joey Underwood 2-3, Brady Glover 1-3, Cam Strachen 1-2, Matt McAueley 0-3, Garret Kucher 0-3, Rypien 0-3, Eathan Greene 0-3, Kyle Paulson 1-1

2B - Glover, Paulson; RBI - Underwood

Friday's box

Sherwood Park 000 01x x - 1 1 3

Kalispell 812 10x x - 12 8 1

Alex Stanley, Parker Motley (5) and Zach Brosten. Sean Ash, Brandon Hine (3), Ryan Lehman (4) and Adam Kuntz. WP - Stanley (six strikeouts, five walks), LP - Ash (two strikeouts, four walks)

SHERWOOD PARK - Tom Chodan 0-1, Jason Tripp 1-2, Cody Shrider 0-3, Jordan Penner 0-2, Jonathan Shapka 0-1, Kristofer Eskelson 0-3, Kuntz 0-1, Owen Renwick 0-1, Dean Olson 0-2, Colin Vaughan 0-1.

RBI - Shapka

KALISPELL - Dean Stimpson 2-2, Dillon Matteson 1-2, Parker Motley 0-0, Mike O'Connell 0-1, Zach Brosten 0-2, Joe Pistorese 2-2, Cody Dopps 0-0, Mat O'Brien 0-1, Alex Stanley 1-2, Shane Johnson 0-1, Marshall Boyland 2-3, Mario Venturini 0-3.

HR - Matteson, Pistorese; RBI - Pistorese (3), Matteson (2), Boyland (2), Brosten, O'Connell

Saturday scores

AA

Edmonton 10, Calgary 6

A

Glacier 5, Lewistown 5

Fort MacLeod 14, Kalispell 5

Edmonton 12, Glacier 0

Kalispell 18, Lewistown 1