Lakers finish tournament play on a high note

PULLMAN, Wash. — Cody Dopps, 2-for-4, doubled, homered and drove in five runs to help the AA Kalispell Lakers wrap up action at the Summer Palouse Series tournament with a 9-3 victory over the Spokane Baseball Club late Saturday night.

The Lakers finished 2-3 in American Legion baseball tournament action.

Earlier Saturday, Columbia Basin rallied for an 8-7 win over the Lakers.

Kalispell did all of its scoring in the finale in two innings — five runs in the second and four in the fourth.

Kendrick Lee, 2-for-4, and Dillon Matteson, 2-for-2, were the other offensive leaders for the Lakers.

Matteson and Adam Frandsen doubled while Zach Personett tripled.

Kalispell outhit Spokane 10-3.

Matt McLean and Hank McLeod shared mound duties for the Lakers. McLean allowed three hits, walked seven and struck out five in five innings.

McLeod fanned one batter and issued three walks in two innings.

“We were disappointed,” Lakers coach Ryan Malmin said.

“We expected more from ourselves.

“I guess the major struggle this weekend was our pitching,” he continued.

“Our pitchers need to do a better job of taking control of the game, finding the strike zone. We gave up too many free passes.”

Malmin was pleased with how the Lakers ended tournament play.

“Twenty hits and no errors in our last two games,” he said.

“We blew two leads late in ballgames,” he added.

“One in the fourth inning of game No. 2 and a two-run lead in the bottom of the seventh yesterday (to Columbia Basin).”

Kalispell is back in action Tuesday at 6 p.m. hosting the Glacier Twins in a Western AA contest.

Spokane Baseball 120 000 0 — 3 3 0

Kalispell 050 400 x — 9 10 0

Cole Author and NA; Matt McLean, Hank McLeod (6) and NA. W — McLean. L — Author.

SPOKANE BASEBALL CLUB — Josh Tower 1-3, Tyler Huck 0-2, Jeremy Aiderman 0-2, Tucker Sandford 0-2, Derek Thompson 0-2, Garrett Hofnagle 1-3, Matt Green 0-4, Matt Neison 0-2, Luke Cherry 1-2.

KALISPELL — Kendrick Lee 2-4, Dillon Matteson 2-2, Jake Johnson 0-1, Cody Dopps 2-4, Sean O’Connell 0-4, Adam Frandsen 1-2, Charlie Obermiller 0-3, Louie Freudenburg 1-3, Zach Personett 1-2, Nate Bengston 1-2.

2B—Tower; Matteson, Frandsen, Dopps; 3B—Personett; HR—Dopps; RBIs—Huck, Cherry; Matteson (2), Dopps (5), Freudenburg, Bengston.