Glacier wins 2 at Crossover; Flathead earns split

by Daily Inter Lake
| April 20, 2025 2:10 AM

GREAT FALLS — Glacier’s softball team won a tight one, then a laugher and Flathead split a pair of games at the Class AA Crossover Tournament held Saturday in Great Falls.

The Wolfpack edged Billings West 4-3 and then thumped Gallatin 16-2 to improve to 8-2 this season.

Flathead had a big rally fall short in a 12-10 loss to Great Falls High, then handled Bozeman High 16-1.

Glacier 4, Billings West 3

Down 3-1 in the first inning, Glacier rode the pitching of Ava Grady and Nakiah Persinger’s offense to a 4-3 win over Billings West at the Crossover softball tournament Saturday.

Grady, a freshman, relieved Olivia Gibbons in the first inning after the Golden Bears got a two-run single from Kylee King. Grady gave up a sacrifice fly to Tatum Bush but then fanned the next two batters.

She ended with 13 strikeouts, to go against one walk and five hits allowed. Grady worked around doubles in the fifth and sixth innings; in the seventh West (7-3) got two singles with two outs, but Grady fanned the next batter to end it.

Persinger doubled and scored in the first inning, had an RBI single in the second inning and drove in the go-ahead run with a groundout in the sixth.

Glacier 110 011 0 - 4 10 0

West 300 000 0 - 3 8 4

Olivia Gibbons, Ava Grady (1) and Cazz Rankosky. Tatum Bush, Sarah Schneider (7) and Georgia Egge.

GLACIER — Nakiah Persinger 2-4, Rankosky 2-4, Olivia Warriner 0-4, Gibbons 0-3, Grady 1-4, Karley Allen 1-4, Tayler Vivian 0-3, Kaydee Walcheck 1-2, Khirsten Terrell 3-3. L Anderson 0-0.

BILLINGS WEST — Ryane Viker 1-4, Mielle Kavran 2-4, Tayten Abrams 1-3, Kylee King 2-4, M Murphy 0-0, Schneider 0-3, Bush 0-2, Rylie Watt 1-3, Egge 1-3, S Solberg 0-3.

2B — Persinger. 2B — Watt, Viker, Kavran. RBIs — Persinger 2, Gibbons, King 2, Bush.

Glacier 18, Gallatin 2

A pair of nine-run innings by the Wolfpack put away the Raptors, who managed two runs in the third. The game ended then under the mercy rule.

Grady and Taylor Vivian each had two run singles to get the first inning going; the Pack took advantage of two Gallatin errors and three walks in the frame, and Persinger and Rankosky each scored twice. Persinger scored three times total.

Glacier strung together 10 straight hits in the second inning, with Kaydee Walcheck hitting a double and then a single.

Chloe Farrell was in the circle for the Pack, allowing four hits, two walks and two earned runs in three innings. She struck out three.

Gallatin 002 - 2 4 3

Glacier 99x - 18 16 0

Tayjah Jasinski and Kelly Coon. Chloe Farrell and Rankosky, S Frederick (3).

GALLATIN — Coon 0-1, Zoe Bassham 2-2, Olivia Klemann 1-2, Parker Stevens 0-2, Addison Bleile 0-1, Madison Coleman 0-1, Shayla Clark 0-1, Adyson Ryles 1-1, Josie Stiart 0-1.

GLACIER — Persinger 2-3, Rankosky 2-2, Fredferick 0-0, Warriner 1-2, Anderson 0-0, Gibbons 1-3, Grady 1-2, Aubree Gerber 1-1, Allen 2-3, Vivian 2-3, Walcheck 3-3, Taelor Holt 0-0, Terrell 1-3.

2B — Allen, Walcheck. RBIs — Persinger, Vivian, Grady 2, Gerber 2, Rankosky, Warriner, Allen.

Great Falls 12, Flathead 10

Down 8-2, Flathead scored six runs in the sixth inning, capped by Reese Conley’s two-run home run — only to have Great Falls answer with four runs in its half of the sixth.

Three hits, a walk, an error and a passed ball fueled the Bison, who took a 12-8 lead into the seventh. There, Lacie Franklin socked another two-run homer for the Bravettes, but Flathead got no closer.

Franklin and Conley also hit doubles in the game, and each drove in four runs. Danica Hennell and Makenna Korf each scored two runs.

Aletta Hagen hit a two-run homer in Great Falls’ five-run fifth inning. The Bison are 2-7.

Flathead 002 006 2 - 10 11 8

Great Falls 102 054 x - 12 15 3

Macey McIlhargey and Reese Conley. Harley Brown, Avery Rains (6), Kinslee Reeves (7) and Ella Kingsland.

FLATHEAD — Mackenzie Brandt 0-4, McIlhargey 3-4, Conley 2-4, Olivia Nyman 0-4, Kinsdey Lake 1-4, Danica Hennell 1-3, Paulina Holland 1-4, Lacie Franklin 3-4, Makenna Korf 0-4, Jazmine Mullins 0-0.

GREAT FALLS — I Sanders 3-5, Kallie Beisecker 2-4, Landry Moog 1-2, Gracie Kuszmaul 2-4, Aletta Hagen 2-3, Kingsland 3-4, Brown 2-4, K Nash 0-3, Reeves 0-1, Ashley Little 0-2, Rains 0-1.

2B — Conley, Franklin, Kingsland, Brown. HR — Conley, Franklin, Hagen. RBIs — Conley 4, Franklin 4, McIlhargey 2, Hagen 3, Kuszmaul 2, Rains 2, Sanders, Nash.

Flathead 16, Bozeman 1

Conley hit a two-run home run in the first inning, and Brandt hit a solo home run, then a grand slam during an eight-run burst in the second for Flathead (2-9).

The game ended under the run rule in the third inning: McIlhargey’s single scoring Korf with the game’s final run.

Bozeman, playing mostly a junior varsity schedule this season due to low turnout, managed two hits against Franklin, in three innings Franklin walked four and struck out five.

Seven Bravettes scored twice; Korf drove in three runs.

Bozeman 010 - 1 2 3

Flathead 484 - 16 11 1

M Shove and A Westphal. Franklin and Conley.

BOZEMAN — M Grove 1-2, Westphal 0-1, Shove 0-2, S Whlers 1-1, L Hein 0-2, “T Gallagher 0-1, M Pagnotti 0-1, K Lennon 0-1, No. 24 0-1.

FLATHEAD — Brandt 3-4, McIlhargey 1-1, Conley 2-2, Nyman 0-1, Lake 1-2, H Ward 0-0, Hennell 1-1, Holland 1-3, Franklin 0-0, Mullins 0-0, Korf 2-3.

2B —Korf. HR — Brandt 2, Conley. RBIs — Groves, Brandt 5, Korf 3, Conley 2, Lake 2, Hennell, McIlhargey.