Molzhon playing magnificently

With a week to go in the regular season Senior pitcher Kyla Molzhon is at the top of her game.

With a week to go in the regular season Senior pitcher Kyla Molzhon is at the top of her game.

At the end of last week's four-game marathon Molzhon pitched her second no-hitter of the season by shutting down Deer Lodge in front of her home crowd to the tune of seven scoreless innings.

"She just gets stronger and stronger," says Coach Randy Pirker who says her pitches are picking up speed, have more movement and she's finding the corners of the strikezone more regularly.

She finished the day with 10 punchouts and two walks in the game.

The 3-0 win against Deer Lodge was the punctuation mark in a dominating week for Molzhon and the team's defense. In four games the Ladyhawks only surrendered two runs, while compiling 33 runs of their own.

On Friday, Molzhon struck out eight and walked one in a 11-1 win against Eureka. The day before Molzhon was even more brilliant as she struck out 14 batters and walked two in a 9-1 victory over Troy and on Tuesday Molzhon once again flirted with a no-hitter against Plains, only surrendering one hit and striking out 14 in a 10-0 victory at Plains.

Not only is Molzhon dominating her competition, but Coach Pirker says the defense backing her up has really stepped up, which is no easy task for a defense that spends a lot more time seeing their pitcher strike out the opposing team than actually having to field ground and fly balls.

"The defense backing her up is unbelievable," says Pirker.

Offensively it was Kayla Stark who stepped up during Molzhon's no-hitter. Stark doubled and drove in a run. Molzhon also helped her cause by going 2-3 with one RBI and Shelby Swant picked up a pair of singles.

Against Eureka, eight of the nine starters on the team picked up at least one hit led by Stark and Swant who both picked up a pair of hits in the game. Against Troy Jackie Pfeister doubled and drove in a run for the Ladyhawks. Karli Cavill also went 3-4 and Molzhon and Monica Conlin both hit a double in the contest.

At Plains Molzhon had a home run in the first and Pfeister doubled for the Ladyhawks. Molzhon also added a single in the game.

With one week left in the regular season before Thompson Falls hosts the divisional tournament, the team is currently the second seed in the tournament after Loyola beat Florence on Friday. If Florence rebounds to beat Loyola in this week of games then the three teams will be tied at the top of the standing with two losses apiece and Thompson Falls will own the tiebreaker on points.

With this in mind the Ladyhawks are remaining focused throughout this week of games. The play Whitefish on Tuesday for a nonconference game, Mission on Thursday and Troy on Friday.

"We go one game at a time. We don't look ahead at all," says Coach Pirker.