Bravettes stymie Sentinel, fall to Big Sky

The Flathead Bravettes battled the Missoula Sentinel Spartans, the Missoula Big Sky Eagles and the elements on a cold and rainy Tuesday evening at Conrad Complex.

 The Bravettes, led by sophomore Abbie O’Brien’s two for three effort at the plate, posted five runs in the third inning en route to a 7-3 Northwestern AA victory against Sentinel in their first game of the day.

Kaitlin Torgerson had two RBIs and Niea Sutton threw a complete game for the Bravettes, who held off Sentinel’s 11 hits for the win.

The second game proved to be a tougher challenge for Flathead.

The Eagles opened up the contest with a four-run first inning, two of which were earned runs, as errors and walks plagued the Bravettes early in the game.

Big Sky catcher Jaime Schafer and first baseman Kilyee Snow each drove in runs off of Flathead freshman pitcher Kylee Beccari.

However, the Eagles momentum didn’t last long.

In the bottom of the first, O’Brien, the Bravettes leadoff hitter  swung at the first pitch she saw from Big Sky’s Kendall Rauk and launched it over the left-center field fence for a home run.

“We’re always aggressive and we’re trying to look for that first-pitch strike,” Flathead coach Ashley Fusaro said.

“We were very happy to see Abbie jump on it. She’s been working hard at transferring her weight and we saw it pay off in her home run.”

Senior second baseman Iris Matulevich, who walked, scored on senior first baseman Cassidy Smith’s ground rule double, cutting the Eagles lead to 4-2.

Smith worked a 3-1 count before driving the ball to center field where it rolled under the fence.

After Rauk retired the side, Beccari trotted back out to the circle in hope of avenging the four-spot Big Sky put up in the first inning.

She worked a quick second inning sending the Eagles down in order, all lazy fly outs to left and center field.

“We’re looking at throwing her a lot of games,” Fusaro said.

“We weren’t getting a lot of corner calls that we were hoping for. We’ll go back to work on some pitches for tomorrow.”

Flathead stranded two runners in the bottom half of the second and couldn’t take advantage of Beccari’s strong second inning.

The Big Sky posted three runs on two hits in the top of the third, after a couple of errors allowed two runs to score.

The Bravettes responded with a run of their own in the bottom half of the inning.

Torgerson scored from third on freshman third baseman Kyle Meredith’s sacrifice grounder to first base.

That’s all Flathead would score in the inning, trailing 7-3 after three innings.

Beccari shut the Eagles down in the fourth, allowing no hits and one walk.

Unfortunately for the Bravettes,  after going down in order, Big Sky put up four more runs in the fifth inning.

With Snow reaching base on a walk, teammate Hope McCracken sent a no-doubter over the left field fence for a two run homer.

The Eagles tacked on two more after the shot and lead 11-3 going into the bottom of the fifth.

Flathead scored one run in the bottom half on Smith’s second RBI of the day, as she drove in senior catcher Kaylee Henderson, who drew a two out walk.

“(Cassidy) did a great job hitting. She’s a senior leader and we’re excited to see her hitting well,” Fusaro said.

“She spent a lot of time in the gym and it’s starting to pay off for her.”

Leading 11-4, Big Sky put the game away for good, scoring six runs in the top half of the sixth.

The Eagles tallied three singles, two doubles, a walk and a hit by pitch to take lead 17-4.

Macey Newbary came in to pitch the sixth for Big Sky. She gave up a hit to Lynsey Potter, but struck out three Bravettes and the game ended on mercy rule.

“We were happy with our first couple of innings,” Fusaro said.

“There were a few uncontrollable that we can’t do a lot about, but I was happy that the girls came back and chipped away at them. We had a lot of mental errors and a couple physical errors. Our goal is no mental errors and that’ll help eliminate some of those physical errors.”

The Bravettes will be in Helena on Saturday to face Helena High at noon and Helena Capital at 2 p.m.

Sentinel    010    002    0    —    3    11    5

Flathead    015    100    x    —    7    6    2

Nurse and Gillis. Sutton and Henderson. W—Sutton. L—Nurse.

MISSOULA SENTINEL — Timber Plenger 2-3, Chauntelle Nelson 1-1, Cady Lanzel 0-3, Kealey Gillis 1-4, Jessica McMillen 0-3, Halle Nurse 1-4, Serina Breum 2-3, Ashna Laird 1-2, Emily Earl 1-2, S Ganieany 2-3.

FLATHEAD — Abbie O’Brien 2-3, Iris Matulevich 0-2, Kaitlin Torgerson 1-3, Kaylee Henderson 0-2, Cassidy Smith 0-2, Lynsey Potter 0-3, Kijrstjn Kruse 0-3, Kylee Meredith 2-3, Niea Sutton 1-2.

2B — Gillis, Nelson. O’Brien, Torgerson. RBIs — Nelson, Ganieany, Torgerson 2, Henderson, Smith, Sutton.

Big Sky     403     046      —    17    11    6

Flathead     201     010     —    4    4    0

Kendall Rauk, Macey Newbary (6) and Jaime Schafer. Kylee Beccari and Kaylee Henderson. W— Rauk. L— Beccari.

MISSOULA BIG SKY — Macey Newbary 2-4, Kendall Mooney 1-5, Morgan Johnson 0-3, Jaime Schafer 2-3, Quincy Preston 2-4, Kendall Rauk 0-4, Kiley Snow 3-3, Chelsea Todd 1-3, Hope McCracken 1-4.

FLATHEAD — Abbie O’Brien 1-3, Iris Matulevich 1-2, Kaitlin Torgerson 0-2, Kaylee Henderson 0-1, Cassidy Smith 2-2, Kylee Meredith 0-2, Kijrstjn Kruse 0-2, Shayla Tweet 0-3, Lynsey Potter 1-3.

2B — Mooney, Smith. HR — McCracken, O’Brien. RBIs — Schafer 3, Mooney 2, Snow, McCracken 2. O’Brien, Smith 2, Meredith.