All-stars take State

The Clark Fork Valley All-stars minor team took home the state championship on Sunday at the softball complex in Polson. This is the first time the minors have won the state championship.

“The kids did an amazing job, to go through the whole thing undefeated is just incredible,” Clark Fork Valley All-stars minor coach Todd Johannsen said.

The team played a round-robin type format from Wednesday to Friday, playing games each day. On Wednesday they played Ronan and won 18-1, on Thursday they played Darby 13-1, and on Friday, in what Johannsen called one of the best games of the tournament they played Hamilton and won 4-2.

On Saturday the all-stars played North Valley and won that game 15-7. On Sunday morning they played Hamilton again, and the game went into extra innings with the All-stars winning 11-9 in seven innings. Usually, the minors play six innings.

The championship game Sunday afternoon was a blowout, with the All-stars brutally defeating Whitefish 13-0 in four innings. In little league there is a “10 run rule.” After four innings, or three-and-a-half if the home teams leads, and one team has a lead of 10 runs or more, the manager of the team with the least runs concedes the victory to the opponent.

Johannsen said he was still amazed by all they accomplished. He said that most of the teams they played against in the state tournament had 20 teams of players to choose from for their all-star teams. The Clark Fork Valley All-stars could barely field a team and only had six teams to choose from. Johannsen said he was basically given a list of players who were going to be on his team, there weren’t tryouts or picks.

“People around here can’t believe it already because it has never happened before,” Johannsen said. “We’re such a small, little team.”

He said that all of the players from the team stood out and there weren’t individual ones who carried the team any more than anyone else.

“It was a great overall team effort,” he said. “Even if one player didn’t do as well one game, all of them shined at some point in the tournament.”

Johannsen admits that, because of their size and the other teams’ much larger pool of players, he thought their chances to win state were pretty slim. That opinion changed as the boys played in the tournament.

“Boy, those kids weren’t allowing anyone to beat them,” Johannsen said. “By Saturday afternoon I thought there was no way we were going to lose the championship.”

Because the team won the state tournament they now travel to Meridian, Idaho for the regional tournament. There will be one other Montana team from the eastern side of the state who will also be playing, along with two teams from Idaho, two teams from Washington, two teams from Oregon, two teams from Wyoming and two teams from British Columbia. If the All-stars win at the regional tournament then they will go on to the little league World Series in Maryland.

Next Wednesday will be a travel day for the team. The regional tournament itself will go from Thursday until Sunday. Johannsen said that the team is now looking for local support to help with the travel expenses. The team did win $1,000 traveling money from the state tournament, but high gas prices, food costs and hotel expenses will devour the state stipend pretty fast.

“We’ve had tournaments in Columbia Falls, Polson and Florence,” Johannsen said. “So the parents have been traveling quite a bit and we’re looking for proceeds to help with the traveling expenses.”

The team plans to have a banner made up at The Printery in Plains, commemorating their state championship victory and Johannsen said that if businesses donate to them, they will put the business’ name or logo on the banner as well.

“This just doesn’t happen around here,” Johannsen said. “Nobody thought we’d go this far.”

If anyone would like to help the Clark Fork Valley All-stars with their travel expenses Johannsen encourages them to contact him at either 826-2010 or 531-9976.