Polson's season comes up one run short

The Polson Lady Pirates' potential storybook season came to a heartbreaking end on Friday, as the girls suffered a one-run loss to Libby when the Lady Loggers overcame a 4-0 deficit to win in their last at-bat, handing Polson its second loss of the state tourney.

The Lady Pirates had all the momentum from the get-go, starting when Strohm Fouty legged out an infield single to open the game, and then advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Jenni Nesladek. Fouty scored when Libby fielded a routine ground-out to first, neglecting to pay attention to one of the state's speediest runners, who rounded third and went home.

In the bottom of the first, a Lady Logger stroked one to deep right center, but Tami Bonkowski came up throwing to Fouty, who tossed it to third basemen Jaelin Vandeberg to get the runner out at third. Pitcher Dylen Zetterberg closed out the inning with two strikeouts.

In the top of the second, Fouty knocked a two-run homer over the right field fence — the first of her career — to give the team a 3-0 lead. In the top of the third, Keely Torgison avoided a tag at home plate on a sacrifice bunt by Bonkowski to give the team a 4-0 lead.

Zetterberg picked up another K in the fourth, and it looked like the Lady Pirates would have no trouble finishing up the game. Several times in the first few innings, head coach Larry Smith cautioned his girls in the dugout though, telling them, "There's still a lot of game left."

His words proved to be prophetic. In the bottom of the fifth, Libby loaded the bases with only one out, and got on the board by drawing a walk to make it 4-1. Lindsey Rafter fielded a grounder to first at the next at bat and fired the ball home to get the out at the plate, but the next batter hit a stand-up triple to clear the bases and tie it, 4-4.

Polson couldn't score in the top of the sixth or the seventh, and Libby started the bottom of the inning with a lead-off double. There was an intentional walk to the next batter to set up the force out or double play, but a bloop single loaded the bases with Lady Loggers and no outs.

The next batter hit a grounder to third. The Libby runner on third broke for home as Vandeberg fielded the ball and threw it to Nesladek. The runner arrived slightly before Nesladek, who turned to tag the runner, causing a minor collision and the ball to pop out of her glove, as the Libby runner slid across the plate. Libby 5, Polson 4.

(A frame-by-frame analysis of pictures taken by local photographer Mike Humphrey and a Leader reporter/photographer show the Libby runner ahead of the throw home. Even if Nesladek had held onto the ball, it would have been a very close play at the plate. Very close. The infield was perfectly positioned, playing five steps in, but the Libby runner just got a good jump on the hit. True to her competitive spirit, Nesladek's version of what happened is much harder on herself than what appeared to actually happen — the Libby runner just got a great jump on the ball.)

"No matter what, if we had gotten the runner out, there still would have been bases loaded with only one out," Smith said. "We did everything we possibly could, but it was one of those things where they were meant to win it, and they did." The girls collapsed in the dugout area, sobbing at the knowledge that they were probably the better team, but not on that day. It was the second time this season that Libby had beaten the Lady Pirates on a fluke play in their last at bat. The Lady Pirates had beaten them in the last game of the regular season to capture the divisional championship, but couldn't overcome them in the end.

Smith said the pressure of living up to expectations definitely had an impact on the team going into the tourney.

"There were pretty high expectations. Even my seniors, I could sense the whole week of practice, the emotions, the nerves….," Smith said.

During the game, Smith went to the mound three times to talk with his team and Zetterberg, who had started her third game in just over 24 hours (the rules allow 14 innings per day). Smith said he briefly contemplated bringing in the team's other pitcher, Nicole Brasher, in the later innings against Libby, but that he decided to stick with Zetterberg after talking it over with assistant coach Jay Sampson.

"There was a chance when I thought maybe she was getting a little bit fatigued, but we were all very comfortable with her on the mound," he said.

Lady Pirates 13, Belgrade 3

The Lady Pirates looked solid in the tourney opener, handing Belgrade a loss after getting over some early-inning nerves at the beginning of the game. Belgrade took the lead on a passed ball in the first inning, but Fouty tied it up by scoring on a wild pitch in the bottom of the inning.

Belgrade took a 2-1 lead in the second, but a sac bunt by Vandeberg moved Nesladek to second, who eventually scored on a RBI single by Keely Torgison to tie the game at 2-2. Janelle Lundeen hit one to center field to score Bonkowski, and the team never looked back.

Fouty legged out an infield single in the fifth to score Zetterberg, and then hits by Nesladek, Fouty, and Vandeberg bumped the score to 8-3. Rafter and Kyla McDonald picked up RBIs in the sixth to make it a 10-3 lead, and then hits by Fouty and Nesladek made it 12-3.

Bonkowski drew a bases-loaded RBI walk to give the team a 10-run slaughter rule win, 13-3. Zetterberg had some first-game jitters, but settled down to pitch a nice game, getting a strikeout in the first and second innings, two in the third, one in the fourth.

Frenchtown 4, Polson 0

Against Frenchtown, Polson faced much-improved pitcher Ashley Block, who recorded five shutouts total to give her team the state championship. Polson had beaten Frenchtown earlier in the season, but had no luck manufacturing runs early Friday afternoon.

Zetterberg match Block pitch for pitch early on, at one point inducing five straight ground ball outs to Fouty between the first and second innnings. In the third inning, Rafter and McDonald had singles and eventually moved to second and third, but the Lady Pirates just couldn't score them.

Zetterberg went to a 3-ball count for the first time in the third inning, but got a strikeout to get out of the innning when Frenchtown had two runners on base. Frenchtown took a 1-0 lead on a hit-and-run in the fourth. In the top of the fifth, Zetterberg got a lead-off hit, moved to second on a passed ball, and then stole third.

With the tying run at third and no outs, Polson again couldn't get the run over the plate, stranding two runners total. In the bottom of the sixth, Frenchtown had a bases-loaded, two-out double to clear the bases and give them a 4-0 lead for the win.

Polson went three up, three down in the seventh. If there was one consolation to the team, it was that they lost to the eventual state champs. Ashley Block and the rest of the team held all teams scoreless for the entire state tournament, beating Laurel in the finals, 2-0, on Saturday.

To the Lady Pirates credit, most of the team showed up for Saturday's action, holding their heads high and talking with other players and parents. In the end, it just wasn't meant to be. The team will lose Torgison, Bonkowski, Fouty and Nesladek to graduation. All four seniors led the league in almost every key offensive and defensive category possible.