Familiar faces await Glacier at State AA softball

Same story, different year for the Glacier Wolfpack softball squad, which will also be hoping for a different ending: The squad begins its State AA softball tournament against Billings Senior once again.

“I’ve been a head coach at three state tournaments,” said Glacier’s Abby Connolly, whose club takes on the Broncs at 4 p.m. at Kidsports in Kalispell. “We’ve played Billings Senior first game, each year. We’re pretty used to the draw.”

The Broncs beat the Wolfpack 5-1 in 2018 and 6-0 in 2019; Kennedy Venner pitched the latter game as a freshman (Kynzie Mohl started for Glacier), and didn’t allow a hit. Venner is now a junior and has 232 strikeouts.

“Obviously they’re a super competitive team,” Connolly said of the 18-6 Broncs. “As are all the teams. All of these teams I think have a chance to win this state tournament.”

Connolly said the Pack spent much of the last week of practice working on hitting, or laying off, the rise ball that Venner and other Eastern AA pitchers employ, more than those in the West.

“We’ve been working on that and being disciplined at the plate, and cleaning up some of our defensive mistakes,” Connolly said. “We’ve had a great week of practice — one of the best preparations for state I’ve had as a coach, as far as intensity and effort.”

It does seem to be a balanced field, though the crossover between east and west was limited by the pandemic.

Glacier played Great Falls once, winning 10-7; Great Falls, which won the last two State AA crowns (2018-19), beat Capital (16-3) and Helena (19-9) early on. Sentinel swept a doubleheader from Senior April 9.

Billings West needed extra innings to beat Sentinel 3-2 on April 10;

Belgrade, which won three straight State A titles in 2017-19 before moving up, playing only Butte from the Western AA, winning twice.

State A

We’ll have a new champion since Belgrade is a AA school, and it might just be Polson, with pitcher Katelynn Druyvestein, catcher Lexie Orien and leadoff hitter Josie Caye.

Laurel comes in unbeaten, and like Polson, Lewistown and Frenchtown, has a first-round bye in the 12-team tournament.

Libby and Columbia Falls join Polson as the Northwest A’s entrants.

The Wildkats are led by Alyssa Blankenship, Abby Underdhal. Sydney Mann. McKenna Rensel, Aspen Dawson.

Taylor Munro, Bethany Thomas, Destinee Crawford and Courney Benson lead a Libby squad that 5-3 in league games.

State B/C

Mission-Arlee-Charlo, also known as MAC, represents the Western Division along with Florence, and has a solid pitching tandem in Liev Smith and Kooper Page, and potent hitters in journey Crawford and Izabel Evans.

The Bulldogs are facing defending (2019) state champion Huntley Project in today’s first round. The Red Devils are led by slugging pitcher Camden Susott.

Florence won the 2017-18 state titles.