Wildkats rally past Wolfpack

COLUMBIA FALLS — It’s takes a lot of effort and a lot of things have to go right — but a team can recover from a five-run softball deficit.

The Columbia Falls Wildkats showed that when they rallied from five runs down to defeat the Glacier Wolfpack 8-7 on Friday night.

“We had contributions from everybody. That was really nice to see. (Each Wildkat) made a hit, they made a play ... or something,” said Columbia Falls coach Dave Kehr.

“I’ve got 13 girls right now who can play a lot of different spots — and they’re doing a nice job,” he added.

“We hit the ball well, I thought. We gave up one inning of mental errors, but they stayed together. They got on base, they ran on a dropped third strike. Those are the little things we’ve got to do. It’s nice to have 13 players doing the whole thing rather than four or five,” Kehr said.

This one had a bit of everything. It was nip-and-tuck early on with Columbia Falls leading 2-1 going into the fifth.

Both teams had one rough inning.

The Wildkats committed two errors in the fifth — which helped Glacier score six runs. The Wildkats responded with two runs in the fifth and a four-run rally in the sixth.

The rally for each team came with two outs and both started with an error.

“We could have got out of our inning. They could have got out of their inning,” said Glacier coach Joel Bemis.

When it happened to the Wildkats in the fifth, no one was more interested than Kehr to find out how the Columbia Falls team would react.

With a one-run lead going into the inning, he had planned to make substitutions.

“I’m thinking ... should I put those other girls in anyway? But I wasn’t going to change my mind and leave players in. I decided I’m just going to play some girls and see how it goes. I was proud of them. It was a great game. They stuck with it. I was real happy with the effort,” he said.

“Coming back with six runs, there were a lot of things that had to happen,” he said.

“Tiffany (Hummer) getting on on a dropped third strike (in the bottom of the fifth), that was a big play. Catie (King) had a really nice at-bat. She was behind 0-2 and wound up hitting that change-up,” he said.

For the Wolfpack, it was about the mistakes.

“It was six errors. That’s what it came down to for us,” Bemis said.

“We got down early, we came back, but we committed a lot of errors.”

But that was also OK in Bemis’ book.

“We had some nice young girls come in. We hit the ball well. That’s our first outing, so I was pretty pleased with it. They worked hard and I felt good about our girls effort,” Bemis said.

“This crew is really good. They work hard and have great attitudes. They’re good teammates. I’m excited about it.

“Jena (Willis) pitched a pretty good game. She did a good job. We had three freshmen in and I thought they all contributed. It was a pretty good overall effort. We just need to clean up the errors.”

The Wildkats play Polson today in a nonconference matchup.

The Wolfpack heads to the Great Falls Jamboree where it will play Butte, Laurel, Billings Senior and Billings West.

There are no stats taken, Bemis said.

“We just let the girls play. It’s a good experience for them.

Glacier 0 0 0 1 6 0 0 — 7 12 6

Columbia Falls 0 0 1 1 2 4 x — 8 9 2

Jena Willis and Hanna Atlee. Ashley Trueblood, Winter Kemppainen (5) and Kathryn Jetty, Erika Nelson (5). W - Kemppainen. L - Willis.

Glacier - Hannah Atlee 1-4, Kayla Russell 1-3, Shayna Atlee 1-4, Jena Willis 3-4, Marissa Rogozynski 0-4, Cassidy Mann 1-4, Kallie Evans 2-3, Katie McHugh 1-3, Tacey Howe 2-3.

2B - Russell.

RBI - S. Atlee 1, Willis 1, Evans 3.

Columbia Falls - Tiffany Hummer 2-3, Tori Price 0-0, Jaylynn Cantu 1-2, Shaun Rowe 1-3, Niki Birky 0-3, Madison Sandefer 2-3, Catie King 1-1, Kathrin Jetty 1-2, Erika Nelson 0-2, Jordan Lefebvre 0-4, Ciarra Holm 0-2, Ashley Trueblood 0-2, Winter Kemppainen 1-1.

3B - Rowe. 2B - Jetty

RBI - Hummer 1, Rowe 1, Nelson 1, Holm 1.