Sapa-Johnsrud Tourney Elliott, Jones push Lakers by Elks
The Daily Inter Lake
WHITEFISH — Sam Elliott tossed a 2-hitter and AJ Jones, 2 for 4, drove in three runs as the Kalispell Lakers AA topped the Lethbridge Elks AA 8-1 on Thursday afternoon in the opening game of the 34th annual Sapa-Johnsrud Memorial Baseball Tournament at Memorial Field.
Elliott limited Lethbridge to a pair of singles in his six innings on the mound. He struck out seven and walked five.
Dawson Smith pitched the final inning for the Lakers.
Lethbridge led 1-0 after two innings, but the Lakes tied it up with a run in the top of the third.
Kalispell finally blew the game open with a seven-run sixth inning.
The Lakers had seven hits, all singles, by six different players.
Randy Stultz scored twice for Kalispell.
Stultz, Jones and Eric Seaman all had a stolen base.
The Lakers stranded seven runners to six for Lethbridge.
Kalispell (24-12) will play twice today — 4:30 p.m. versus Palouse Patriots AA and 7 p.m. versus Glacier Twins A.
The Lakers have one game on Saturday, 2 p.m. versus the Butte Miners AA.
The two teams with the best tournament records play Sunday at noon for the championship.
Kalispell Lakers AA 001 007 0 — 8 7 2
Lethbridge Elks AA 010 000 0 — 1 2 1
WP — Sam Elliott; LP—Ty Penner.
KALISPELL LAKERS AA — Randy Stultz 0-1, Taylor Morton 1-4, Eric Seaman 1-2, Dawson Smith 0-3, AJ Jones 2-4, Logan Siblerud 1-4, Johan Freudenburg 0-3, Jonathan Craver 1-3, Brandon Jordan 1-4.
LETHBRIDGE ELKS AA — Liam Leech 0-4, Levi Abbott 0-3, Penner 0-3, Kyle Bloor 1-2, Torrin Vaselenak 0-1, Raleigh Ferby 0-2, Zach Goruk 1-3, Skylar Braun 0-2, Wyatt Tomalty 0-3.
RBIs—Stultz, Morton (2), Jones (3), Jordan.
Palouse Patriots AA 10, Glacier Twins A 5
WHITEFISH — Palouse of Pullman, Washington, jumped out to a 5-0 lead and never looked back.
The Patriots added four more runs in the bottom of the fourth and one in the sixth.
Glacier (15-13) scored once in the third and fourth and three times in the fifth.
Coby Clark-Dickenson, 3 for 4, homered in the fifth inning for Glacier. He drove in three runs.
Glacier outhit Palouse 9-7.
Quintin Schriver and Ryan Veneman both doubled for Glacier.
Glacier followed with a game against Lethbridge, but results were not available by press time.
Glacier has one tournament outing today — 7 p.m. versus the Kalisepll Lakers — and one on Saturday — 7 p.m. versus the Butte Miners AA.
Glacier Twins A 001 130 0 — 5 9 3
Palouse Patriots AA 500 401 x — 10 7 1
WP—NA; LP—Matt Morrison.
GLACIER TWINS A — Ryan Veneman 1-4, Jack Schwaiger 1-3, Coby Clark-Dickenson 3-4, Terek Bistodeau 1-4, Tom Hellwig 0-4, Morrison 0-0, Donnie Simms 0-1, Dan Seymour 0-1, Forrest Kobelt 1-2, Caleb Meehan 0-3, Quintin Schriver 2-3, Billy Barret 0-0, Nathan Hader 0-0.
PALOUSE PATRIOTS AA — NA.
2B—Schriver, Veneman; HR—Clark-Dickenson; RBIs—Veneman, Clark-Dickenson (3), Morrison.