Polson slips by Lady Loggers
Paul Sievers/The Western News LaRona Luscher of the Lady Loggers smacks a stand-up double to tie the game.
In a Western A battle on a warm afternoon at Remp Field, first-place Polson came from behind to take an 8-4 victory on Saturday over Class A’s defending state champions.
The Lady Pirates took advantage of Libby defensive miscues during a five-run fourth to take a lead they would never relinquish. Six of Polson’s eight runs were unearned.
“We had a couple of bobbles and dropped balls,” Thompson said. “We’ve just got to clean things up. Taylor Armstrong pitched well but defensively, we didn’t help her out a whole lot.”
Leading 2-1 through the first three innings, Polson opened up the fifth with Riley Kenney reaching base on a dropped fly ball in the outfield. Sallie Sams and Kayla Duford followed with singles but a pair of popouts to first baseman Jordan Refsland would have ended the inning. The Pirates got three more singles to move runners around and take a 6-2 lead – all of five runs in the inning unearned.
The Lady Loggers cut into the deficit in the bottom of the fifth when Alysha Martin smacked a home run over the left-field fence. Nicky Lapka, who led off the inning with a single, also scored.
“Alysha came through with a home run to give us a break in there,” Thompson said.
But the Pirates added runs in the sixth and seventh inning and allowed only one more Libby hit the rest of the game to pull out the win.
Trailing 1-0, Libby got on the scoreboard in the bottom of third with a pair of runs. Lexi Hageness opened the frame with a double to the right-field fence. LaRona Luscher followed with a double to score Alyssa Walker, who entered the game as a courtesy runner for Hageness, who plays catcher.
Lapka walked and scored on a single to center field by Candace Hendrickson but the Pirates escaped further damage in what could have been a much bigger inning for LHS. The Pirates got out of it with a 6-2-3 double play.
At the plate, Libby collected seven hits. Martin went 2-for-4 with two RBIs and the home run. Hendrickson went 2-for-4 with one RBI. Lapka finished 1-for-3 with two runs. Luscher was 1-for-3 with one RBI and Hageness went 1-for-2.
Armstrong allowed 10 hits and no walks while striking out three over her complete-game performance.
Libby (3-4 in conference, 7-6 overall) now heads into a challenging week with visits to Glacier on Thursday and the Butte Central Tournament on Friday and Saturday.