TERRY COLUMN: Lakers A playing tournament baseball
Pitching and defense.
Two of the three main tenets of baseball, with good pitching and defense a team will be in every game it plays, regardless of how well it’s swinging the bats.
That’s been the formula for the Class A team of the Kalispell Lakers, which begins play at the Montana/Alberta American Legion Western A district championships today.
“I feel like we’re playing our best ball right now,” Lakers A coach Jesse McFarland said.
The Lakers have flourished this season, especially in the pressure of tournaments, when teams have to play games often three or four days in a row, sometimes multiple times in a day.
That type of play tests a team’s focus and depth, with inning limits on pitchers forcing most teams deep into their roster on the mound.
The Lakers are 12-1 in tournament games this season, their only loss coming in a 5-4 defeat to Medicine Hat in the final of the John R. Harp tournament. Their coach attributes that record to those two special skills.
“We’ve stayed focused all year. We’ve got some great pitching and we play good defense. I told them early on in the season that if we do that, we’re going to have a chance. We’re not going to put any limits on how far they can go.
The nine-inning format of the district tournament should serve to test the bullpens even further, though McFarland said he trusted his team’s arms.
“Our pitching has carried us all year. If we come out and pitch like we have all year, and we play good defense, we’re going to be in a lot of ballgames this weekend.”
The Lakers are among the favorites this weekend, along with their Valley rival Glacier Twins.
For their part, the Twins have been nearly as good this season, and have been very good at this tournament the last two years. Glacier has made it to the district title game each of the last two seasons, only to fall short.
This year’s Glacier team brings in all that experience, and is fed by a group of youngsters for the next few years that rose to prominence in the Babe Ruth levels, making the World Series.
In a preview of what could be a semifinal game, the Lakers and Twins met for a pair of nine-inning contests last weekend in their lead-up to the district tournament. The teams split the pair, but got some valuable experience against top competition.
“It was a good way to go into this weekend,” McFarland said.
“Playing a quality opponent like the Twins and getting to play two nine-inning games, being able to pull one out. Our kids are feeling really good about where they’re at right now. I’m excited to see how they do.
“We’ve had some success at tournaments and we have a pretty confident group right now.”
If they do well, there will likely be two things that drive them there. The two things that have driven their success all season.