Living a dream

Break out the virgin margaritas, it's time to celebrate. The Ladyhawks are 2010 B-C Softball champions.

At least that's how the Thompson Falls Ladyhawks softball team celebrated following their incredible path from a loss in their first state tournament game to six straight victories and the state championship.

Break out the virgin margaritas, it's time to celebrate. The Ladyhawks are 2010 B-C Softball champions.

At least that's how the Thompson Falls Ladyhawks softball team celebrated following their incredible path from a loss in their first state tournament game to six straight victories and the state championship.

"All of us were thinking that it just didn't happen. It was like a dream, like we were going to wake up from it," says senior Stephanie Larkin who had a team-high three home runs in the tournament.

It was a journey that became all the much harder after the one seeded Ladyhawks dropped their first game to fourth seeded Conrad in the first game 2-3.

"It was going to be really hard to come back, because we had so many games to play to make it to the championship," says Larkin explaining the team's thinking after the loss. "But like (Coach) Randy said ‘it was going to be hard, but we had nothing to lose.'"

Still the team was in a nerve-racking position as one more loss could have ended their dream before it even started, especially since they had to turn around from their loss by playing one of only two teams who beat them during the regular season.

It was a defensive struggle too, but thanks to a two RBI effort from Makayla Becker and solid pitching from Kyla Molzhon(seven strikeouts), the Ladyhawks were able to squeak by Florence 2-1.

Then on Friday after coming from behind to beat Shepherd the Ladyhawks got on an offensive roll.

"I think we really got the momentum going the first game from Friday morning because, it was the number one seed from the East and we rallied on them. We got our momentum and adrenaline going," says Molzhon.

From there it was all Ladyhawks as they took down Shepherd (8-0), Deer Lodge (12-6) and Loyola (11-5) to make it to the championship where they had beat three-time defending state champion Columbus twice to secure the crown.

In the first game Molzhon did it all striking out nine, only surrendering four hits and hitting in the go ahead run with two outs in the seventh inning for a 2-1 victory.

The second game was less of a pitchers' duel as Freshman Kelsey Fitchett continued her torrid hitting streak by paving the way for an early 3-0 lead in the top of the fourth inning.

Columbus then sent two home in the bottom of the inning and the Ladyhawks added some insurance in the fifth when Molzhon belted a solo home run setting up a dramatic inning.

Thanks to what the players called questionable safe calls, Columbus had two on and no out in the bottom of the seventh inning putting pressure on Thompson Falls who had lost to the same team in the state tournament two years ago.

"I remember looking around and seeing my teammates' faces and they were looking down and I was telling them ‘we're still in this, we're still in this. It's only two," says Larkin who then backed up her words by making a great diving catch on a bunt to garner out number one and give her team all the confidence it needed.

"It is really relieving. It make you feel good that you can trust them, trust your defense," says All-state pitcher Molzhon.

Two pop fly outs later and the rest was history.

The championship comes on the tail end of another historic venture for the team as it was the first year that Noxon and Thompson Falls cooped in softball. Although they are historically rivals any concerns of the co-op were put to rest on Friday with the hoisting of the championship trophy.

"I was really worried at first, because you grew up competing against these girls. It actually turned out to be one of my funnest years," says Larkin, a Noxon native.

For Molzhon it was a sweet end to a stellar career and a great bounce back from coming oh so close in 2008.

"It was the last chance that we had and it was really sweet that we could go out on a win," says Molzhon. "I think people remember their senior year the most and it makes it that much more memorable that we ended up with the championship."