Ronan beats Mission for first season win

Zach Urness

Leader Staff

ST. IGNATIUS — The hot bats of the Ronan Maidens prevailed through the chilly and rain soaked weather of late March softball, giving them their first win of the season with a 15-5, six-inning victory over the host Lady Bulldogs.

“It’s really good to get that first win of the season,” said Ronan head coach Doug Fisher. “I really enjoy playing against Mission because they always have a solid team, but it’s a rivalry game, so it’s great to get the win.”

But it was the Lady ‘Dogs that came out of the gate fast, getting a lead-off home-run from Katie McDonald to help them jump out to a 3-2 lead.

Things began to unravel for Mission in the third inning, however, as starting pitcher Ashley Mitchell began to have come control problems and, after a passed ball and a sac fly gave Ronan a 4-3 lead, Kelsey Clairmont dropped in a bloop single that scored two runs and gave the Maidens a 6-3 lead.

Ronan pitcher Carli Starkel held the lead with a good looking outing, escaping jams in the third and fourth innings, and held the Lady ‘Dogs to three runs in four innings of work.

Mission did have its chances, though, and in the bottom of the fourth with the bases loaded Ashley Mitchell hit a deep drive that should have scored at least one run, but the Mission player took off too early and was doubled off third base to end the inning.

“We made a lot of mental mistakes,” said Mission head coach Steve Woll. “We’re a very very young team with 17 underclassmen on our roster, but we are really going to need to work on the fundamentals this week.”

Ronan took advantage of Mission’s missed opportunities in the fifth inning, as Ali Crenshaw lined a base hit that scored two runs and gave the Maidens an 8-2 lead.

Kelsey Clairmont broke the game open in the top of the sixth with a hot shot to the gap that cleared the bases and put Ronan up 14-3. Kaylee Larson followed with a double that scored Clairmont and put the Maidens up 15-3.

“We got off to a slow start,” noted Fisher. “Their pitcher {Mitchell} got us pretty good in the first few innings, but we started to time her pitches a little better as the game went on and were able to get some big hits.”

“Carli Starkel pitched a great game,” Fisher added.

Kaylee Larson pitched the final two innings for the Maidens and, despite giving up two runs in the bottom of he sixth, kept the lead at 10 runs to give Ronan a six-inning victory.

It was a costly game for the Lady Bulldogs who, along with losing the game, lost one of their few experienced players in Mattea Grant, who may have broke her finger in the early innings and may not return for the duration of the season.

“We’re not sure how long she’ll be out,” said Woll. “It’s pretty tough to lose a good player like that, but we’ll just have to see how things are in practice this week and go from there.”

The Lady ‘Dogs will look to get things back on track as they travel to Loyola on Saturday. The Ronan Maidens will also be on the road and take on Anaconda tonight (Thursday), before traveling to Hamilton.