Lady Pirates turn it around

FRENCHTOWN — After starting the week out on a hard to swallow note with a 14-11 loss to Whitefish on Thursday, the Polson Lady Pirates rallied back for an 8-3 win over Loyola and 8-1 win over Butte Central at the Frenchtown Invitational.

A canceled double header against Havre gave Polson the time they needed to regroup on Friday.

“We had a very good practice and I think the girls were feeling good about themselves and the opportunity to play in that tournament on Saturday,” Polson head coach Larry Smith said.

Dakota Peterson didn’t pitch her best against Whitefish, but found her game against Loyola. She pitched in sync with her team’s offense. After giving up nothing in what Smith called “four real solid innings,” a streak of errors and Loyola hits evened things up at three each in the fifth.

But her team responded and so did Dakota.

After one out, Polson took off. A line drive by sophomore catcher Kayla Duford put her on first base. Then Peterson slid one past the Loyola shortstop to advance Duford.

Next, a Loyola error after a sacrifice bunt by senior second-baseman SuSan Perez-Tenas put Duford in for the lead. Polson’s junior short-stop Staci Benson liked where things were going and added a single. Sophomore Kodi Woods, pinch running for Peterson, advanced to third.

Big hitter senior third-baseman Sarah Newton was up to bat. Newton cracked a double to drive in Kodi.

Last, but never least, as the Lady Pirates have discovered, was freshman Riley Kenney. Kenney banged in a single for the fourth run of the inning.

Peterson used the lead.

“That helped settle Dakota down a little and she finished it off for us,” Smith said.

Polson added one more run in the seventh.

Against Butte Central - a team known to get a hold of the ball - Polson put on a show.

“This was probably the best game that they played all year both defensively and offensively,” Smith said. “Our defense made some tremendous plays in the outfield and the infield.”

In anticipation of Butte Central’s habit of blasting long balls to left field, Smith put Kenney there where she had a stellar game fielding.

In the infield, someone else did a lot of the dirty work.

“I think probably the biggest defensive player was Staci Benson,” Smith said. “She made some really big plays on some really hot hit ground balls.”

Because both teams were so proficient with the bat, it was an impressive game to watch from both ends, Smith said.

“I think I saw everybody make some great defensive plays in this game,” Smith said.

While Polson hit 22 balls, a lot of them when they ran through the whole lineup and scored five runs in the fourth inning, senior Polson pitcher Charlee Jenson held Butte Central to only eight.

Kenney was 4-4, the type of performance that will get people talking.

Comments like, “she’s good at everything,” could be heard from the Polson dugout during the Whitefish game.

“She’s becoming one of those players that you’re going to be able to count on in crunch times,” Smith said of Kenney. “She’s very coachable. You usually only have to tell her something one time and she’s got it.”

With all of the success in Frenchtown the Whitefish game still hurts. It was a conference loss. It goes to show that even a team which hasn’t been a traditional threat can be on the right day.

“It will be quite significant because our conference is a lot stronger than it has been in the past,” Smith said.

Polson hosts Hamilton at 2 p.m. and Corvallis at 6 p.m. on Friday then plays at 3 p.m. on Saturday at Libby.