Trotters and Hawks tangle at Western B tourney

If speed kills, good pitching throttles.

That has been a known fact in fast pitch softball circles for many years. The wind-up, delivery and release of the ball are hard to come by and rare to master.

Maybe not so much for Florence-Carlton pitching ace Kylie Kovatch, the Falcons pitcher supreme who is also pretty good with a bat in her hands.

Kovatch and the Lady Falcons took advantage of speed and control to roll through the Western B Divisional softball tournament at Plains High School’s newly remodeled ballpark on their way to a Division title and a trip to the state finals this weekend in Lewistown.

Kovatch ran her pitching record to 24-1, much like her Falcons’ team who stand at a similar record heading into the sport’s championship weekend. Their only loss of the year so far was to Polson, a Class A school.

Florence dispatched second place Mission twice on Saturday, including winning a hard-fought 15-11 decision over the Lady Bulldogs in the championship game.

Along the way the Falcons dispatched of Thompson Falls 15-0, Manhattan 17-2, Mission 12-0, then beat the Bulldogs by four in the final game.

Both the Falcons and Lady Bulldogs, who are made up of players from St. Ignatious, Arlee and Charlo, will travel to Lewistown this weekend.

The tournament was hosted by Plains High, which spruced up and remodeled its existing softball facility to make it more tournament and fan friendly.

The home team was knocked out of the three-day tournament Friday afternoon, ending their hopes of making the state finals.

The Trotters opened the tournament Thursday evening with a game at Plains’ Amundson Sports Complex on the northern edge of town, battling the Manhattan Lady Tigers in a back and forth down to the wire game that Manhattan pulled out 12-10.

That loss sent the home team into a Saturday morning game versus Sanders County rival Thompson Falls, which was the first team to tangle with Kovatch’s pitching prowess. The Lady Hawks were held hitless by Kovatch, who did pretty much the same to all opponents in the tournament until the championship showdown with Mission.

That set up a third meeting on the year between the Trotters and Hawks, after the first two had gone Plains’ way thanks to late inning rallies by the Trotters.

In their third meeting of the season, Plains jumped out to an early 3-0 lead at the end of the first inning. Thompson Falls got on the scoreboard in the top of the third on an RBI double by Olivia Harnett, one of many sophomores on the Hawks roster.

However, Plains came back for a pair of runs in the bottom of the third to go ahead 5-1. The Trotters put together several singles to build the four run lead.

Then things broke lose in the bottom of the fourth after Thompson was unable to score in the top half of the inning. Swirling winds and intermittent rain did not silence Trotters bats as they opened the bottom of the fourth frame with a walk and three singles, sandwiched around a wild pitch to push five runs across and take a 10-1 lead heading into the fifth.

But the never-say-quit Blue Hawks fought back and bunched together several hits of their own in the top of the fifth to shave three runs off the lead and inject fresh hope into the T Falls dugout, with the score at 10-4.

The hope took a blow in the top bottom of the sixth when freshman Maddy Blood legged out an inside-the-park home run that drove in three runs and put the home team on top 13-4.

Thompson Falls went down in order in the top of the sixth as the rain began to fall harder. Then, in the bottom of the sixth, Plains got singles from Jolena Caldwell and Izzy Butcher, bringing sophomore Kassidy O’Keefe to the plate for the Trotters.

O’Keefe then connected on a long home run that easily cleared the fence in left field, driving in three more runs and halting the game due to the Mercy rule.

For the Lady Hawks, who will return a solid, more experienced team the next few years, the season was over. For Plains, the win sent them to a Friday afternoon game against Ennis, which was battling back through the consolation bracket.

The Mustangs wasted little time getting after the Trotters, scoring two runs in the bottom of the first on a pair of doubles and a single. Plains came back and scored one run in the top of the second, only to have a second potential run thrown out at home plate.

Then in the bottom of the second inning, the Mustangs bats came alive and the flood gates opened as Ennis used a three run home run to build an 8-1 lead.

Both teams tacked on a run in the third inning, including a long blast by Plains junior Faith McGonagle that soared over the centerfield fence for a solo home run just as the rain began to fall harder.

Plains could not score in their half of the fourth inning then watched as Ennis pushed two more runs across the dish to build a 10-4 lead.

Ennis added three more runs in the bottom of the fifth on a run scoring single and a pair of runs via throwing errors to boost the score to 14-4 and invoke the Mercy rule, ending the game and eliminating the host team.

Games later that day were rained out and rescheduled for Saturday when the tournament came to an end with the Florence Falcons Division champions.

Plains' season had come to an end at that point, but they will return several promising players for next season.