Glacier wary of Flathead in state softball play-in

On paper, it is undoubtedly a mismatch.

Glacier enters today’s state softball play-in round, a best-of-3 series, as the No. 3 seed in the Western AA conference. The Wolfpack’s opponent — crosstown rival Flathead — is the No. 6 seed.

Glacier is 11-7 overall (7-5 Western AA). Flathead is 4-15 (2-10 Western AA).

In four head-to-head meetings this year, Glacier won four times by a combined score of 44-13.

But even with the odds seemingly well in her team’s favor, Wolfpack coach Abby Connolly is taking nothing for granted.

“We always know, against Flathead, it’s not just another game,” she said.

Even so, Connolly has made a point to prepare as if it is nothing more than just another contest in order to avoid placing unnecessary pressure on her young team, most of which will be experiencing its first postseason action at the varsity level.

“We just did what we normally do in preparation for a game,” Connolly said. “A lot of hitting, good defense, live at-bats, all that.

“It is a crosstown and it is postseason, so we’re excited to play, but we’re approaching it like we would really any other series.”

Flathead also has embraced that the majority of what pressure there is will be squarely on the shoulders of Glacier. After dropping each previous matchup, Flathead coach Jack Foster realizes his team is not expected to win, and he doesn’t mind playing the spoiler role.

“It’s tough to beat a team a bunch of times in a row,” he said. “They’re probably expected to win. There’s probably a little more pressure on them than us.”

Sage Vanterpool (9-5, 2.04 ERA) draws the start in the circle for Glacier. Maitlynn Betts (2-11, 5.99 ERA) will throw for Flathead.

Play begins today at Glacier High School at 2 p.m. Game 2 will follow at 4 p.m., and Game 3, if necessary, is scheduled for 6 p.m.

The winner of today’s play-in series advances to the Class AA state tournament next weekend in Helena.