Wagoner leads Trotters over Eureka

So a week earlier, you won your first game of the year after an 0-5 start.

You know you are a good team working to put it all together. Then, it happens, that magic first win is in the books.

A couple of tough opponents are up next, including one game of two on the road.

Then, for the Plains Trotters girls softball team a heart breaker steps into the fray.

You lose your next game on the road in Missoula to a good Loyola team by an almost unheard of softball score, 1-0.

Deflation?

Not for this Trotters’ bunch. All they would need was one of the veteran players to step up and have a good game and get things back on the winning track pathway.

Enter senior standout Carlie Wagoner, for whom this script was seemingly written.

In the next game out, three days after the 1-0 setback, Wagoner had that game.

She stepped up and stood out, going five for five at the plate, with a pair of doubles and three runs batted in.

One game hiccup in the rear view mirror. Back to the task at hand.

And it helped that the magic of a player catching fire would spread into the line-up. Jaelyn Carr answered the call with a two-for-five day at the plate that included five RBIs, including two batted in on a triple.

And sophomore Maddy Blood joined in with a 2-2 day at the dish, and a solid relief pitching appearance during the Trotters 19-7 bounce back win over Eureka at Plains High.

The girls from Lincoln County struck first in the Saturday afternoon game, which featured actual sunshine for the first time in a while, scoring a pair of top of the first runs to take an early lead.

Was there despair in the Trotter dugout? If so it didn’t show. Victory tastes too good to just have one bite.

Plains pushed a solo run across the plate in the bottom of the first, only to watch Eureka tack on three runs in the top of inning number two, with the majority of those runs scoring on a two-run home run off starting pitcher Piper Bergstrom.

The first sign this was not going to get out of hand against Plains was the two runs they answered with in the bottom of the second when Wagoner lashed her second hit of the game, an RBI double that was part of a two run inning for the Trotters.

One inning later, after Bergstrom held the Lady Lions scoreless in the top of the third, Wagoner got things going again with a single that scored Izzy Crabb. A short time later Carr smacked her two-run triple as Plains overtook the visitors and posted an 8-5 lead at the end of three innings of play.

Eureka then scored two in the top of the fourth to cut the Plains lead to 8-7. The Trotters scored one in the bottom of the fourth to push the lead back to 9-7. The seesaw continued when the Lady Lions score one in the fifth.

However, Plains pushed across three runs in the bottom half of the fifth to boost their lead to 12-8, one of those runs coming home when Wagoner, who had doubled and then advanced to third, scored on a steal of home.

Eureka scored a single run in the top of the sixth, then Plains erupted for six runs in the bottom of the inning, taking advantage of three batters hit by pitch, and a pair of RBI singles by Wagoner and Carr along the way. At that point the scoreboard said 19-9.

Eureka managed another solo run in the top of the seventh, but the Plains lead was enough to end the game with the Trotters getting their second win of the year.

Eureka actually outhit the Trotters 19-15 and both team played error free ball for the game.

They began the week with a puzzling 1-0 loss to Loyola.

The only score of the game came on a steal of home by a Loyola player who reached base earlier in the inning via a double.

Once again, Wagoner was the hitting star for the Trotters, going 3-4 at the plate, including a triple. She also pitched six innings, allowing just three runs. Plains outhit Loyola 6-3 in another error free game.

Plains was scheduled to play a home game versus Mission/Arlee/Charlo (MAC) this past Monday after. Their next game after that is a home game Friday against the Three Forks Wolves, beginning at noon.