Keeping Score: Softball crosstown, C-Falls freezes competition, and AA Lakers' at 4 win streak

Welcome everybody to the Keeping Score podcast presented by Corwin Motors, I am your host, Josh Amick. This week we have another crosstown matchup, this time in softball, Columbia Falls freeze out the competition at the Iceberg Invitational and the AA Lakers’ winning streak reaches four games, so without further ado let’s get into last week’s highlights you might have missed.  

Starting off with everyone’s favorite rivalry matchup, Thursday was another crosstown battle in softball between Flathead and Glacier.  

Kinsey Lake started the scoring in the first inning for the Bravettes, hitting a solo home run to take a 1-0 lead but the Wolfpack immediately responded. They loaded the bases in their half of the inning and Olivia Gibbons laced a pitched over the wall for the grand slam, retaking the lead 4-1 and they never looked back. 

Nakiah Peringer added on a two-run homer for the Pack to make it 6-1 but the star of the game and my poster player of the week was Olivia Warriner who homered not once, but twice on a day for both of her hits and finished the day with four RBIs.  

The Bravettes did not score after the first inning and the final was 15-1. 

Flathead did pick up a 16-1 win over Bozeman on Saturday at the Crossover event and lost a tough battle 12-10 to Great Falls.  

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 to take a 12-8 lead.  

Lacie Franklin added another two-run homer in the seventh, but the Bravettes couldn’t get any closer. In the nightcap game, Conley hit another home run, and  

Mackenzie Brandt hit two homers of her own, including a grand slam as Flathead won easily, picking up their second win of the season. 

Also, at the Crossover event Glacier won both their games, 4-3 against Billings West before exploding for 18 runs in a win over Gallatin. Freshman Ava Grady came on in relief for the Pack and struck out a whopping 13 batters against Billings West. Nakiah provided the offense with a double and two RBIs. 

In their second game, the Pack scored nine runs in the first and second innings and capitalized on Gallatin’s errors to pick up their 8th win of the season and just two losses. 

Elsewhere in softball, Addy Bowler drove in four runs on a pair of hits as Columbia Falls defeated Whitefish in Northwest A softball Tuesday.   Bowler drove in two runs on a single to center field as Columbia Falls (2-4) scored nine runs in the opening frame. She added another two-run single in the second to grow the Wildkats lead to 13-0. 

Columbia Falls picked up another win as Kylie Gjesdal-Davis homered and Addy Bowler tripled during their four-run fourth inning, and the Wildkats held off Libby for a 5-4 win in Northwest A softball Thursday. 

Gjesdal-Davis' solo homer broke a 1-1 tie and Bowler’s two-out triple put the Kats up 4-1; Bowler then scored Columbia Falls’ final run as part of a double steal with Tayler Lingle. 

Moving over to the boy's side of the diamond was a matchup between Bigfork and Troy at the Vikings' new Flathead Beacon Field on Thursday. Holland Jantzen drove in Ryder Hamilton on a grounder to shortstop to secure the 13-3 run rule victory in six innings.  

Hamilton hit an RBI triple just before Jantzen called game and Grady Campbell also tripled for the Vikings as right different Bigfork batters picked up a hit for their 5th win of the season. 

Also on Thursday, Columbia Falls lost their first game of the season, 8-2 to Hamilton. The Wildcats found their only other run in the third inning on a double from Nico Young that scored Treysen Murphy.   

On Saturday, Columbia Falls watched its early 7-3 lead dwindle over the final two innings before responding with two runs to beat the Dillon Beavers. 

In the bottom of the sixth, Cooper Ross reached on an error and the next batter, Nico Young, laced a double to tie the game, 8-8.  

Reggie Sapa singled home Young on the next at bat to retake the lead. Young recorded the final three outs on the hill as the Wildcats improved to 6-1 on the season. 

Heading to a stalemate in the bottom of the sixth inning, Whitefish’s Tait Orme hit a walk off single, scoring Calvin Eisenbarth for a 9-8 Bulldogs win over Stevensville at the PaddleHeads Baseball Showcase Saturday. 

Orme finished with two hits, including a double, and scored once. Eisenbarth doubled ahead of his game-winner.  

Carter Godsey went 2-for-2 with two RBIs and Christian Schwaderer added two runs as the Bulldogs’ 4-5-6 hitters combined to go 6-for-9 and Whitefish remains perfect with a 7-0 record.  

For Legion Baseball, the AA Lakers beat the Calgary Cardinals in 3-straight games before adding another win over the Cranbrook Bandits on Friday and Saturdays doubleheaders at Griffin Field.  

Jackson Heino took the mound for the opener, allowing just two hits and striking out four through five innings. Battery mate Andre Cephers sparked the offense with a base hit and four RBIs in their first win, 9-1 over Calgary. 

Game 2, Kalispell responded with 10 runs in the bottom half of the inning after being down one, highlighted by back-to-back doubles from Hunter Fann and Oscar Kallis that drove in a run each. Calgary committed three errors in the frame, leading to four unearned runs as the Lakers cruised to a 19-1 victory. 

In their third game against Calgary, the game was called after five innings with the Lakers scoring 14 runs in the second inning of a 16-0 win.  

The Lakers had 17 players reach base in that inning, highlighted by doubles from Jackson Heino and Luke Nikunen.   

In game two, the Lakers scored in every inning with Cole Brink reaching base in all four at bats on his way to three runs. He drove in two while collecting three free passes and a triple on their way to a 12-5 victory to improve to 5-3 on the season. 

Moving on to track, Jack Phelps swept the boys 200 and 400 sprints and helped host Columbia Falls boys win the Iceberg Invitational track and field meet. It was a narrow victory: The Wildcats scored 122 points to 120 for Frenchtown and 75 for Ronan.   

That two-point margin could have come from several directions, including Lucas Peterson’s win in the 3,200 meters, or Lane Voerman’s win in the discus — where he threw an all class-best 172 feet, 2 inches. 

Aubrey Smith and Cora Hannan supplied wins in hurdles to help the Wildkats keep pace; Soli Bullemer hit a PR of 11-1 to win the pole vault and Taryn Borgen won the high jump as well.   

Oliver Kress and Isak Soyland also went 1-2 in the pole vault for the Wildcats. Simon Douglas won the 800 for Whitefish, and teammate Carson Gulick won the 110 hurdles.   

Elsewhere in Track, Glacier tied with Helena Capital for the top spot, each scoring 58 points in the all-boys event. Flathead was fifth with 52 points at the Dahlberg Invitational.  

Glacier made a statement with Owen Thiel winning the 1,600, Ethan Anderson running a season-best in the 300 hurdles and Dylan Smith finishing second in both the discus and shot put.  

Sweeping the 100 and 200 was Flathead’s Ben Bliven, while teammate Kasen Kastner finished second in the 800.  

On the girls side, Flathead’s Alivia Rinehart set two personal records at the annual all-girls Great Falls Optimists Club meet, which drew all 16 Class AA programs. 

Her time in the 200 was 25.24 seconds; she also won the 110-meter hurdles in 14.61, the best mark in AA.  The Bravettes also had wins from Josie Wilson and Alice Dolezal. 

Rylee Bigelow led Glacier’s effort, hitting a PR in the discus with a mark of 122-11 and taking fourth in the shotput.  

In tennis, Liesl Brust earned a straight sets win for Whitefish as the Bulldogs girls swept Flathead Thursday. On the boys side, Owen Erickson needed three sets, but he downed Rowan Alexander in the No. 1 singles matchup. Holden Askvig, Ezias Bailey and Michael Palmer picked up wins for Flathead. The Bulldogs doubles pairings swept the Braves to take the dual 5-3. 

Jax Ramage earned a straight sets win and led a Wildcats sweep of the Bigfork boys Thursday. Later, Ryan Beagle led a singles sweep for Libby over Bigfork.  

On the girls side Cassy Schlicht and Amanda Leonard earned singles wins for the Valkyries as the teams split matches 3-3. The Bigfork girls also earned a split with Libby 3-3 as well. 

Carl Bitney and Sam Engellant led the Glacier boys doubles pairings to a 4-0 sweep of Whitefish Thursday as the Wolfpack bested the Bulldogs 6-2 overall. Gavin Rodriguez and Weston Heller picked up singles wins for the Wolfpack.  

The Bulldogs got wins from Owen Erickson at the No. 1 singles spot and Jack Flink at No. 3. Lindsey Lemler won a third set tiebreaker that secured a 4-4 draw for the Glacier girls, joining Leilani Lennarz and Autumn Bashara as singles winners for the Pack.  Allie Shors grabbed the lone singles win for Whitefish 

That is going to wrap up this week’s episode of the Keeping Score podcast presented by Corwin Motors. As always full track meet results can be found at athletic.net and full tennis and game recaps can be found at the Daily Inter Lake under the sports tab. Thank you to my sponsor and the listeners tuning in, we will see you all next week on the Keeping Score podcast.  

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