T-Falls softball team gets first win

The Thompson Falls girls’ softball team achieved something more than winning their first victory of the season with a 19-4 victory over Deer Lodge Friday afternoon at Mission High School.

According to Lady Bluehawks’ skipper Jared Koskela, the victory meant more to the team then their first victory of the season. It increased Thompson Falls’ confidence as they prepare to move into the final portion of the regular season.

With the possibility of a “play-in” game looming as a distinct possibility, Koskela’s young team now has a more realistic chance of qualifying for Divisionals, according to Koskela.

“I think our team is still in shock and I think I was too,” Koskela admitted. “(Our team) wasn’t too excited until the bus ride home and the fact that we won a game started to settle in. I am sure that we are going to get some positive vibes during this week of practice and it’ll change what we’ve been doing. We dominated that last game. It wasn’t like we just got by.”

In Koskela’s previous experience as a head coach in athletics, he reiterated how important confidence is to his team moving forward.

“We just come back to that same word,” Koskela said. “Our team could go through the motions, hit the ball and have fun (the rest of the season). Now you add that element of winning into the equation, we can compete with the rest of the teams in the league and figure a way to have the same results against other teams as we did against Deer Lodge.”

The Lady Bluehawks victory over Deer Lodge was a recovery from back-to-back losses against Troy Tuesday afternoon at Troy High School.

Thompson Falls lost two consecutive games to Troy but were able to generate runs in both contests.

In the first contest, T-Falls fell 15-9 and lost the second contest 16-13, both games Koskela said were “closely contested.”

“Our girls had a chance to win in the last inning and we just came up short,” Koskela said. “Our girls gained valuable experience from that game and we will be better able to handle that situation when it comes again.”

The Lady Bluehawks, who will play a doubleheader against Loyola Thursday afternoon at home and play Manhattan Christian Friday afternoon at Drummond, will take it one step at a time as they continue to aim for a shot at playing in the postseason if they can earn the “play-in” game.

“We will treat (the play-in) game like the postseason if we get it because it’ll be winning or go home,” Koskela said.