Polson Purple Rain take fourth place at Helena
Liz Simshaw smacks a hit for the Polson Purple Rain 16u team two weeks ago at the SPLASH tournament.
Zach Urness
Leader Staff
The 16u Polson Purple Rain went 4-2 at a tournament in Helena last weekend, going unbeaten until the semi-finals before losing twice to land them in fourth place.
"I though we played very well up until the sixth inning on Sunday," said head coach Larry Smith of the Purple Rain's game against the Billings Blaze. "We let that one get away from us and couldn't regroup in the consolation game."
After winning last week's SPLASH tourney in Polson, the Purple Rain came out a bit slow, battling to a tie game against the Great Falls City Eectric Heat, 6-6.
"I think we were a little tired for the trip," said Smith.
On Saturday morning Polson came out stronger and beat Ice Blue 10-4 and followed that up with 12-0 win over the Montana Ice 12-0 in three innings.
In the first round of playoff games the Purple Rain took on the Billings Mustangs and won, 9-0. Polson came up against the Billings Blaze in the semi-final, and, after five innings the Purple Rain were in control. But things quickly went south in the sixth inning, as effort and walked allowed the Blaze to score the tying and winning runs, eventually leading to a 9-4 loss.
"That one really got away from us," commented Smith. "We made some mistakes and they took advantage."
The loss moved Polson into the consolation game, and lost to the 6-3 to the Ice Blue, a team they beat earlier in the tourney. "We just couldn't recover," noted Smith.
The Purple Rain will travel up to Kalispell this weekend, along with the rest of the Polson ASA teams.
"We're a much better team then we showed in the last two games of the tournament," said Smith. "I am looking forward to seeing how we'll respond."