Lady Pirates lock up league softball title with 7-1 road win over the Wildkats
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POLSON — With two weeks to go before the state Class A softball tournament, Polson’s Lady Pirates punched their ticket to the big dance a little early.
The Lady Pirates improved to 5-0 in Northwestern A conference play by earning a 7-1 win in Columbia Falls last Friday evening, locking up the conference title and earning a first-round bye at state. The state Class A tournament will be hosted by Billings Central May 27-29.
Polson leads the conference after beating every other team at least once and Whitefish twice. Now the battle is on between Whitefish (3-2), Libby (2-3), Columbia Falls (2-4) and Ronan (0-3) for the last two spots to qualify for state.
The Lady Pirates opened the week with a close 8-6 loss to Class AA Glacier High on Thursday in Polson.
Glacier jumped out to a 1-0 lead when Baylee Quay hit a solo homer off Polson ace Shay Duford in the top of the first. But Polson leadoff batter Staci Benson got her team on the board in the bottom of the inning when she smacked a left-handed dinger over the centerfield fence. Benson was the birthday darling at the plate, hitting 3-for-3 with the homer on her 18th birthday.
“It was a shot, too,” Polson head coach Larry Smith emphasized.
Kodi Woods followed up by earning a base on balls, then Riley Kenney walked to put two runners on base. That set the table for Makaliah Wilson to smack a two-out, two-RBI double into centerfield, putting Polson up 3-1.
Glacier chipped away over the next two innings, closing Polson’s lead to 3-1 through four innings.
Then came a disaster of a fifth-inning for the Lady Pirates, with three costly errors and two earned runs to give Glacier an 8-3 lead. Glacier had three solid hits and a walk in that inning before Shay Duford settled down to get Glacier batters to ground out of the inning.
“Even though they were hitting the ball error, we shouldn’t be making the foolish errors we’ve been making,” coach Smith said.
To their credit, the Lady Pirates didn’t give up on themselves, rallying in the bottom of the seventh. Shay Duford drilled a grounder over second base, then advanced to second on a bad throw to first. Benson drew a walk and Woods slapped a grounder past third. Smith sent Shayla home from third, but she was tagged for the first out of the inning.
Kayla Duford followed with a two-run double to left field that scored Benson and Woods. Then Kenney got on with a single. Sallie Sams followed with a ground-out to second, but scored Kayla to close Glacier’s lead to two (8-6). But Wilson got behind early on the next at-bat and struck out swinging at a riser to end Polson’s run.
Duford took the loss on the mound, picking up six strikeouts and handing out two walks to drop to 9-3 overall.
“That was a well-played game all the way around until the fifth. We played with them toe to toe and it proved that we can play with anybody,” Smith explained. “We just had three costly errors. But Staci (Benson) was great at bat. She was on base all four times she got up to the plate. And Kodi (Woods) was 2-for-3 and had two stolen bases and scored two runs. So the top of the order is doing their job.”
On Friday in Columbia Falls, the Lady Pirates’ bats stayed hot, racking up 11 hits and seven runs, while their defense held the Wildkats to two hits and one run in the sixth. Polson led 3-0 through three innings, then added four insurance runs in the final two innings for the 7-1 conference win.
Shay Duford also pitched well, earning eight strikeouts and giving up just one walk.
