Polson places second

ELMO — Instead of a trophy, the champion of the 30th Annual Standing Arrow Tournament won $2,000.

The hefty prize was part of the tournament that was held in Elmo this past weekend. It featured Kalispell Health and Fitness against Polson with Kalispell beating Polson 13-1 and 18-6 to win the grand prize.

The Superman of Softball team defeated the Gravediggers 15-1 to take third place.

The Polson team was put together by Shane Wilson, taking players from across the Valley. Most of the team has played together in Polson’s mens’ softball league for three years.

Polson entered the championship game undefeated. After a bye in the first round due to a cancellation from Browning, they beat Gravedigger 11-6. They played Kalispell 20-4 to advance to the winner-take-all game. Kalispell rallied and made their way into the championship, now needing to beat Polson twice to win the double-elimination tournament.

Shane also umpired and had kept an eye on the Kalispell team.

“It’s been a great tournament and there are great teams here,” he said. “I knew [Kalispell] could hit the ball.”

With that information, Shane said his team didn’t change their strategy entering the championship round.

Polson started the first game with nine players. A couple players were participating in the Mariners’ alumni game, which went longer than expected. Kalispell took advantage of the three outfielders in the first inning, scoring nine runs in the first inning.

Polson didn’t strike back, unable to get a hit or a runner on base in the first inning.

“They just caught us with our pants down,” Shane said. “Not having the players that were caught in traffic hurt us. It was a tough loss because we were undefeated up until then.

By the second inning, the players had shown up, but Polson was unable to climb out of the nine-run hole. In five innings, Kalispell racked up 13 runs to win the game and force a second championship game since both teams had lost one game.

The second game started with Polson scoring five runs in the first inning. Kalispell charged back with seven runs. Polson was unable to cross the plate, leaving many on base.

“That first inning of the first game knocked the sails out of us,” Shane said.

After the game, John Rausch was named co-MVP of the tournament. Brock Wilson, Eric Skare and Shane were named to the tournament All-Star team.

The tournament was ran by Monty Marengo. He is looking to add a co-ed tournament next year.

Marengo put in at least fifteen hours of work to clean up the field that didn’t even have bases.

“The weeds were three feet high,” he said. “We couldn’t just pull them, we had to dig them out.”