Legion Baseball: Loggers outleg Lakers

The Libby Loggers committed seven errors in their nine-inning Class A American Legion conference contest against Kalispell on Wednesday, but it was the first Lakers fielding mishap that decided the game, Libby winning 5-4 in the ninth inning.

With two outs and two runners on base in the final regulation inning of a tie game, Loggers first baseman Braydan Thom hit what looked like a routine ground ball to the Kalispell shortstop, only for a bobble while fielding the ball to cause the throw to first base to be a fraction of a second late, scoring the winning run from third.

A clean sheet in the bottom half of the ninth sent the Loggers to a victory that belied its sloppy play in the field. Libby committed seven errors, including at least one in six of the first seven innings.

Benefitting from the extra outs, the Lakers took a 3-0 lead after the third inning. Libby rallied in the fourth with the help of the bottom of its batting order, scoring three runs on four hits to tie the game, the last two runs coming on a single from Collin Johnson.

The Loggers took the lead in the sixth when Johnson scored on a two-out single from Luke Haggerty. Kalispell tied the game in the bottom half of the inning after two Libby errors set up runners in scoring position. Taylor Cady singled the run in to even the game at 4-4.

“We’re down to nine guys, I really appreciate how these guys keep coming out every inning and battling after every pitch,” Lakers coach Jesse McFarland said. “They’re giving everything they have, we just came up a little short today.”

Cady was 1 for 3 from the plate for the Lakers and Haydn Schlepp was 2 for 5.

Johnson finished 3 for 5 with a pair of RBIs for Libby while Haggerty was 2 for 4 with a triple and an RBI.

“We just stuck to it,” Loggers bench coach Jack Helber said. “Stay with it. That’s what happened.

“An error in the first inning, an error in the second inning, on and on. We didn’t make one in the ninth.”

The Loggers head further down the road today for a doubleheader at the Missoula Mavericks before hosting the Bitterroot Red Sox in a doubleheader on Sunday in the final games of the regular season.

The Lakers finish the regular season in their next contest, a nine-inning game against Glacier on Sunday in Whitefish.

Libby     000     301     001     —     5     12     8

Kalispell A     111     001     000     —     4     7     2

W — Trace Tamarro. L — Jonas Nyman.

LIBBY — Collin Johnson 3-5, Luke Haggerty 2-4, Jared Winslow 1-4, Oliver Grupenhoff 2-5, Trace Tamarro 0-3, Erik Lauer 2-5, Taylor Wisdom 0-5, Braydan Thom 1-5, Mason Chapel 1-4.

KALISPELL — Gunnar Marsh 1-5, Haydn Schlepp 2-4, Eric Seaman 1-4, Torin Bowden 1-3, Spencer Pisk 0-4, Cade White 0-0, Taylor Cady 1-3, Dawson Smith 0-4, Jonas Nyman 1-4, Jaycob Serrano 0-4.

2B — Grupenhoff; Nyman. 3B — Haggerty; Bowden. RBIs — Johnson (2), Haggerty, Thom, Chapel; Seaman, Bowden, Cady, Nyman.