Maidens take down Stevensville, Libby

RONAN — The Ronan Maidens came off a long break with a jump in their step, downing conference foe Stevensville 19-0, then out-scoring Northwestern A Libby 5-0.

Scoring 24 runs to their opponent’s 0 helped clinch a spot in the top three for Ronan, and a ticket to state.

Senior Jordan Strozzi is one of the Ronan seniors who has played under head coach Lucky Larson since they played 10U ball for the coach many years back.

At practice on Monday, she and the other seniors presented him with a carved wooden plaque of a picture of Lucky during gameplay which they created at school.

It read, “Coaching moment,” in honor of one of his common game-time phrases.

The close-knit team pulled out the weekend’s wins with great play from the seniors and underclassmen alike, Strozzi said.

“It kind of showed that we can go a period of time without much practice and comeback strong. It shows we’re just a strong team. And people should be aware of that,” Strozzi said.

She said Stevensville was the first step.

“The Stevensville win was kind of a ‘get back into the rotation’  kind of thing. To get all the kinks out,” she said

And beating Libby, the defending state champ, was no small success either, she said.

“That was kind of an eye opener for us to see where we stand against the Northwestern A’s,” she said.

Against Stevensville, the Maidens built on an early lead for the massive win.

In the first inning, senior Kelsey Clairmont got on base with a walk and senior pitcher Kaylee Larson hit her in for the first RBI. It wouldn’t be the last of the inning, and certainly not the last of the weekend for the Maidens.

Sophomore Katie Andrews and freshman Page Delaurenti added RBIs in the inning as well. It was 4-0 Maidens and the team never looked back.

“A 4-0 lead going into to the bottom of the first - that’s pretty huge,” Lucky said.

Ronan finished the game with 15 hits and Kaylee pitched a no-hitter.

In fact, Stevensville only had 17 total at-bats in the deal. Kaylee had 11 strikeouts, a walk and hit one batter in the ball game.

Andrews went 3-for-3 in the game, finishing what she started in the first.

Strozzi and junior Chelsey Bourdon each had three RBIs, to lead their team in that department.

Against Libby, Ronan scored four of their five runs in the second inning, another hot start early.

Junior Brittani Clairmont walked on base and found her way home after a single by senior Amanda Bartel. When Kelsey came up to bat the Maidens were two outs deep and a double was all it took to make it 2-0.

Finally Kaylee knocked in Bartel and Kelsey for the 4-0 lead.

The team’s big defensive play came after Kaylee sailed a wild one past catcher Strozzi from the mound in the . A Libby baserunner on third took off for home.

But Kaylee wanted to make up for her mistake, and was waiting at home when Strozzi hustled on the ball and made the throw from the backstop.

Kaylee made the tag and the umpire gave the signal - “Out.”

And the shut out was saved.

“That was huge for us,” Lucky said. “That was just seniors making senior plays. Let me tell you.”

Kaylee had nine strikeouts in the game, including one to finish off that tough sixth inning.

Lucky said Strozzi has yet to strikeout in 57 at-bats.

Strozzi said she has high hopes for her team at state.

“This is the strongest team by far (she has played on) and a well put together team. They all worked really hard to get this far,” she said.

Ronan hosted Frenchtown on Tuesday and finishes the regular season at 4 p.m. on Saturday in Whitefish.