Bigfork, C-Falls move into A baseball semis
POLSON — Bigfork’s Mason Lewis threw a shutout.
Columbia Falls put away the Columbus Cougars late, and the Wildcats’ reward is unbeaten Dillon.
That’s how the first day of the State A baseball tournament went at O’Malley Park Thursday: Two of the three Northwest A teams pushed into the semifinals.
Lewis and the Vikings beat defending state champion Billings Central 1-0; Zeke Dunn threw a complete game 2-hitter, striking out eight, and Jett Pitts’ two-run, sixth-inning triple broke a 1-1 tie in Columbia Falls’ 4-1 in over Columbus.
The 16-4 Wildcats will take on 18-0 Dillon, which similarly beat Whitefish 5-3, in the 11 a.m. semifinal Friday.
Bigfork will take on Frenchtown in the 1:30 p.m. semifinal. The schedule has been compacted because of rain expected Friday and Saturday.
Bigfork 1, Billings Central 0
Lewis needed just 89 pitches to get through seven innings. He allowed one hit and four walks. He struck out three.
The Vikings got their only run in the third: Wyatt Hickey singled, moved to third when two Vikings were hit by pitches and came in on Hayden Mayer’s sacrifice fly. The Rams got a double play out of it — Hickey scored before Ryder Hamilton was cut down at third.
Central ace Paxton Prill did not make the start on the mound. Instead the trio of Matteo Harris, Zach McDonald and Howie Martin combined to allow just four hits and four walks. Harris gave up the run. McDonald fanned seven in four innings.
C-Falls 4, Columbus 1
Dunn threw just 86 pitches, allowing one walk and one run — Koleman Gairrett singled, stole second and came in on an error in the fourth.
That tied the game at 1-1; the Cats had gone up 1-0 when Tristan Victor led off the second with a triple and scored on Jory Hill’s sacrifice fly.
Columbia Falls untied it in the sixth. Lincoln Fisher reached on an error, Nico Young followed with a single and both came in on Pitts’ triple to right.
Victor followed with an RBI single to make it 4-1, and Dunn worked around a two-out walk in the ninth.
Graycen Waltner threw five solid innings for Columbus, allowing seven hits and three earned runs. He fanned two.
Dillon 5, Whitefish 3
The Beavers rallied from a 3-0 deficit with two runs in the fourth, one in the fifth and two in the sixth.
Whitefish led 1-0 on Finn Ryan’s RBI single in the first, and Carter Godsey hit a leadoff home run to spark a two-run third inning. Tait Orme followed Godsey’s shot to left with a double; he came in on Ryan’s second RBI single.
Dillon got two runs back on Levi Stonebraker’s home run in the fourth and tied it up with Cohen Hartman’s RBI double in the fifth.
In the sixth, a walk and two errors led to the go-ahead runs.
Whitefish got two runners aboard in the seventh but Stonebraker came on in relief of starter Logan Fox with one out and closed it out.
Orme threw six solid innings for the Bulldogs, allowing six hits and three walks. He fanned two. Fox went 6 1-3 innings for Dillon; he gave up five hits and four walks, fanning five.
Frenchtown 5, Laurel 3
Konnor Klimpel doubled, had two hits and drove in two runs for Frenchtown, and four Broncs pitchers combined to hold the Locomotives to six hits.
A three-run fourth inning made the difference for the Broncs:
Brooks Day got the last five outs to close it out.
Dallas Jackson drove in two runs for Laurel.
State A-B Baseball
March 28-30, O’Malley Park
Polson
Thursday
Game 1: Dillon 5, Whitefish 3
Columbia Falls 4, Columbus 1
Frenchtown 5, Laurel 3
Bigfork 1, Billings Central 0
Friday
Game 5: Whitefish (14-9) vs. Columbus (11-6), 8:30 a.m., loser out
Game 6: Laurel (10-6) vs. Billings Central (15-4), 8:30 a.m., in Ronan, lo
Game 7: Dillon (18-0) vs. Columbia Falls (16-4),11 a.m., semifinal
Game 8: Frenchtown (17-4) vs. Bigfork (15-5), 1:30 p.m., semifinal
Game 9: Winner Game 6 vs. Loser Game 7, 4 p.m., Ronan, lo
Game 10: Winner Game 5 vs. Loser Game 8, 4 p.m., lo
Game 11: Winner Game 9 vs. Winner Game 10, TBD, third
Game 12: Winner Game 7 vs. Winner Game 8, TBD, championship