SOFTBALL: Glacier strikes early, stops Polson

Ali Williams likes batting in the leadoff spot, and Thursday night’s game was just the reason why.

The Glacier senior led off the first inning with a solo home run, then carried a no-hitter into the sixth, guiding the Wolfpack to an 8-5 win against Polson at Kidsports Complex.

Emma Shew followed Williams with a three-run home run later in the first inning and Glacier (11-5) led by as much as 8-1 before a late Pirates rally.

“That’s why I like being the first batter,” Williams said of her leadoff home run, her team-leading eighth of the season.

“If something like that happens, it’s definitely motivation for the rest of the team. It just feels good to start off the game with a run on the board. It’s a lot less pressure when you’re pitching and for the defense in general.”

“The first inning is where we lost the game in my mind,” venerable Polson coach Larry Smith said. “I didn’t expect them to be able to come out and jump on us like that.”

Thursday was one of Glacier’s best offensive games of the season, with the Pack nearly doubling its season run average (4.1). The hosts cracked seven extra-base hits, scored in three different innings and saw the six, seven and eight hitters in the lineup go a combined 7 for 10.

“We’ve had some production out of the top of our order and then not a lot of consistency out of the bottom but tonight they stepped up,” Glacier coach Andy Fors said.

“Especially this time of the year, it’s nice to see those kids doing that moving forward and getting us ready.”

Shew, the Wolfpack’s sixth-place hitter, finished 2 for 4 and drove in a game-high four runs, adding a run-scoring single in the sixth.

Serra Monroe, batting in the eight spot, went 3 for 3 with a walk, a double, a run scored and an RBI.

Williams, though, was the star of the show once again. The senior added a two-run double in the fifth at the plate and was nearly untouchable in the circle most of the night. She struck out eight of nine hitters during one stretch and allowed her first hit when Lydia Dupuis singled through the middle with two outs in the sixth.

Williams finished with 14 strikeouts in a complete game, although she did have to deal with some pressure in the final inning. Down 8-1 entering the seventh, Polson got four hits — including two bunt singles — and took advantage of two errors in the inning to score four times and bring the tying run to the on- deck circle. Williams got Ashley Benson to fly out to left to end the threat and the game.

“Ali pitched excellent tonight,” Fors said.

“And in a game like tonight where we had a little bit of a cushion with our offense (the errors) didn’t end up hurting us, but we have to learn that down the stretch, in tight games, that could be the difference. We need to clean that up.”

Smith, whose Pirates (12-4) were swinging freely early on, maligned his own decisions regarding his club’s offensive approach in the first six innings.

“As a coach, I kind of let myself down,” he said. “I had a gut feeling before of what I wanted my lineup to do and I should have set it that way because we showed in the end there that it works.

“If I had to bunt 12 times in a row I was ready to do that and I should have done it. That’s on me.”

Haley Fyant pitched the first inning and suffered the loss for Polson. Camas Renault came on in relief and worked the final five frames. The Pirates’ six hits came from six different players.

Anna Schrade added two hits — both doubles — to aid the Glacier attack. Freshman Madison Johnson stroked a pinch-hit double in the seventh.

The Wolfpack returns to the diamond Saturday at Missoula Hellgate at 11 a.m. Polson hosts Frenchtown tonight at 7 p.m.

Polson 001 000 4 — 5 6 2

Glacier 400 022 x — 8 12 4

Haley Fyant, Camas Renault (2) and Ashley Benson (P). Ali Williams and Christine Connolly (G). W — Williams. L — Fyant.

POLSON — Kaelyn Smith 1-4, Lydia Dupuis 1-4, Benson 1-4, Hannah Potter 0-3, Fyant 0-1, Mikayla Croft 0-2, Hannah Fryberger 0-2, Breyland McColl 1-1, Laurel Bitterman 0-3, Quinn Motichka 1-2, Renault 1-2.

GLACIER — Williams 2-4, Christina DuFour 0-2, Erin McHugh 0-3, Anna Schrade 2-3, Madison Johnson 1-1, Christine Connolly 0-2, Kali Gulick 0-1, Emma Shew 2-4, Sarah Frandsen 1-1, Sarah Stern 1-2, Serra Monroe 3-3, Meg Hornby 0-4.

2B — Schrade 2, Williams, Johnson, Monroe (G). HR — Shew, Williams (G). RBIs — Smith, Renault (P); Shew 4, Williams 3, Monroe.