Pirates fall to rivals at state tourney

POLSON — State was no picnic for a Polson team that lost just a few games all season and went in as a top seed.

The Lady Pirates started off going down 5-0 to eventual state champion Frenchtown and after a 4-2 win over Laurel in the first round of consolation play, their season ended in an epic 10-inning, 1-0 rivalry loss to Ronan.

It was a hard pill to swallow for a team with so much promise.

Polson head coach Larry Smith has seen a lot of Polson teams. And he has urged his players to take the season for what it was – a great one.

“They had an extremely successful season,” Smith said.

But the ferocious competitors, especially the seniors, felt the premature exit in a big way.

“They have such high expectations to win it all, it’s really hard for them,” he said.

A slew of Polson softballers made all-state and all-conference teams this season.

Seniors Sarah Newton and Rochelle Woods went all-state for the second year in a row and junior short stop Staci Benson, known for snagging seemingly uncatchable line-drives all season long, joined them in the honor.

The three went first-team all-conference, as did second baseman SuSan Perez-Tenas, freshman outfielder Riley Kenney and senior pitcher Charlee Jenson. Sophomore outfielder Sallie Sams, who came on big for Polson mid-season, was named to the second all-conference team along with sophomore catcher Kayla Duford.

The team’s final game against Ronan was one to remember even if the result was one Polson might hope to forget.

It was a real-life shootout, where it only took one shot to die.

The Lady Pirates had their chances, but sometimes the hits won’t come.

In both the second and third innings, Polson had runners on but fell to a combination of cold bats, a running error and “some very, very nice plays” by the Ronan defense, Smith said.

In the top of the seventh, Sams got on with a single and was bunted over to second by Duford. A close call at first and Polson had an out.

Jenson had a couple good shots early and now she was up with the hot bat.

But even the game’s big hitter couldn’t find her stroke and grounded out. Senior pitcher Dakota Peterson popped up and the Pirates retired.

Things continued into extra innings.

Again in the tenth, the Pirates found themselves in a promising position.

With Jenson and Peterson on with singles, Perez-Tenas had the first go, but flew out.

Benson was up.

“I was really feeling confident with Staci up. I thought, ‘here we go,’” Smith said.

Her bat connected but only enough for a ground ball which was picked up for the out in the infield.

In the bottom of the tenth, Ronan finally broke the silence – although there was plenty of noise from the possible record-size peanut gallery cheering on their teams – and that run meant the Maidens would advance and Polson was through.

Polson had nine hits to Ronan’s four but gave up five walks in the outing. But Peterson struck out nine Ronan batters while Ronan pitcher Kaylee Larson fanned five.

For Smith it meant his team couldn’t find the bat in the clutch, with runners dying to get to home plate having to retreat to the dugout again and again.

It had been a similar story all tournament, starting with the loss to Frenchtown.

“We had a runner on every inning. We just couldn’t seem to get them in,” Smith said.

Against Frenchtown, Perez-Tenas’ double in the seventh was the only highlight hit the team could muster against the champs to-be.

And even the four runs scored against Laurel fell short of normal Pirate production, since Peterson threw one of her better games and the team had 11 hits.

After Ronan, Smith said Newton worded it best. She spoke for herself, but Smith said Newton captured the entire team’s weekend burden when she said, “I just didn’t come up with the hits when I was supposed to.”

Smith said he respected the way the Maidens performed against him and Larson’s pitching. Next year, his Lady Pirates will be a force again, he predicted.

“We just reload and keep building,” he said. “We have some young people coming in with a lot of talent and we don’t expect to slow down.”