Pirates boys, girls experience growth in early-season matches

The Polson High School softball team is still in the process of learning the nuances of the game as many of their younger players get acclimated to the varsity level.

The Pirates have one of the youngest teams competing in the Montana High School Association Northwest Class A Division, but Lady Pirates’ coach Jamie Hanson isn’t about to accept that as an excuse.

Polson’s attempt at a rally against Hamilton came up short in their 10-8 loss to the Lady Broncs Thursday night at Polson High School.

“We are young, but that isn’t an excuse because we made some mistakes and had some baserunning mistakes (against Hamilton),” Hanson said. “Our pitchers threw deep in the count multiple times. We need to work on our approach at the plate and be more aggressive like we have been. We’ve been preaching that to them to be aggressive.”

One aspect that Hanson noticed that will serve his team down the stretch come the state playoffs is their tenacity, which they demonstrated in their rally against Hamilton.

“They never quit,” Hanson said. “We will go to battle (with Hamilton) again, and I liked our opportunities.”

Polson 11, Libby 1

After the loss to the Lady Broncs, Polson demonstrated their offensive prowess in Saturday’s 11-1 victory against the Libby Lady Loggers at the Polson Softball Complex.

The lopsided game only went to five innings as Polson scattered 12 hits in a five-inning contest.

Polson had several multiple hitters in the game. Josie Caye was 3-for-4 and Lisa Castillo was 2-for-3 in the victory over the Lady Loggers.

Lisa Costilla hit her first ever varsity home run in the fourth inning and only second tater of her prep career.

Polson 11, Libby 1

Polson (1-0, 2-1), Libby (1-1, 3-2)

Libby 001 00 – 1 5 1

Polson 701 21 – 11 12 0

Kiera Ward (3K) and Sammee Bradeen. Lauren Vergeront (2K,1PO,1A) and Kaylanna DesJarlais. W – Vergeront (2-1). L – Ward.

LIBBY – Linsey Walker 0-3, Emily Carvey 1-2, Bradeen 1-2, Taylor Holm 2-2, Sheyla Gallagher 0-2, Samantha Miller 0-2, MaKenzie Proffitt 0-2, Bethany Thomas 1-2, Ward 0-2.

POLSON – Josie Caye 3-4, DesJarlais 1-4, Paige Noyes 1-4, Lexi Orien 1-3, SaVanna Carpentier 0-1, Vergeront 0-1, Kobbey Smith 2-3, Lisa Costilla 2-3, Kallie Finkbeiner 2-3.

HR – Costilla. 2B – Bradeen; Caye 2, *Orien, Smith, Costilla. RBIs – Holm; Caye 2, Noyes 2, Orien, Smith 2, Costilla 4. SB – Carpentier. CS – Holm. BB – Carpentier 2, Vergeront 2. HB – Orien. ROE – Noyes. FC – Noyes, Vergeront, Ko.Smith.

Runs – (cr) Kaylee Svendsbye; Caye, (cr) Anna Vert , Orien, Carpentier, (cr) Turquoise Pierre, Smith 2, Corstilla 2, Finkbeiner 2. (Sa13Apr19)

Noyes stroked a blooper into shallow left-center behind short. Leftfielder jumped on her horse in a race to intercept, got her glove on it, but the ball carromed off her mitt. Noyes ended up on second base by time ball was retrieved. Scored by all as an error, but could be argued that elevated difficulty of the ball in play merited evaluation as a single with extra base due to retrieval error.

b5,ab4: Orien liner to left center scores the ten run rule margin, consequently a walk-off of sorts. Scored a single by both side statisticians, but merits a double due to speed of base runner, placement of hit and attempt to throw back into infield. Despite not trying to gun down Orien and nab the run from crossing at the plate, Orien would have arrived at second base in this evaluators opinion.

Hamilton 10, Polson 8

Lady Pirates almost erased five run deficit in bottom half of seventh. Polson had tying runs on the basepath with go ahead run at the plate, but lined out twice and popped up, all within the infield, to end the rally.

Polson (1-1), Hamilton (4-2)

Hamilton 202 032 1 – 10 9 5*

Polson 102 011 3 – 8 8 2*

Lauren Vergeront (4H,3K,*3W), (5) Katelyne Druyvestein (4K,*7W) and Kaylanna DesJarlais. Jorgen Taggart and Abby Johnson. W – Taggart. L – Vergeront (1-1).

HAMILTON – Sophia Doyle 2-3, Johnson 1-3, Mikayla Brickley 0-4, Taggart 1-4, Maggie Ringer *2-3, Chantele Sisson 0-2, Olivia Zepeda 0-3, Haley Frey *2-3, Kyla Shepherd 1-4.

POLSON – Josie Caye *1-4, DesJarlais 0-5, Paige Noyes 1-3, Lexi Orien *2-4, Vergeront 0-2, Druyvestein 0-0, Kobbey Smith 2-3, Lisa Costilla 2-3, Cali Cannon 0-4, Kallie Finkbeiner 0-2.

HR – Ringer. 2B – Ringer; Smith, Orien. RBIs – Taggart 3, Ringer 3, Frey; Smith 3, Noyes 2, Costilla. SF – Noyes. SH – Johnson. HB – Costilla, Vergeront. BB – Johnson, Sisson 2, Doyle 2, Brickley, Taggert, Ringer, Zepeda, Frey; Smith, Caye, Druyvestein, Finkbeiner 2. SB – Brickley, Ringer 2, Doyle; Druyvestein, Ko.Smith, Costilla. CS – (cr)Gutierrez; Druyvestein, Caye. ROE – Brickley; *Caye, Noyes, Vergeront, Finkbeiner. (Fr12Apr19)

Asterisk (*) denotes stat variant(s) where home book differs from visitor specs: HamGC(H:10H,5E; P:8H,1E), PiScout(H:8H,5E; PL7H,2E); Ringer 3-3 (t6- H:1B, P:FC), Frey 2-3 (t5- P:E4, ); Caye 0-4 (b6- P:E6, H:E, JH:1B), Noyes 1-4(b6- P:SF9, H:L9), Orien 3-4 (b3- P:FC, H:1B)

t5,ab6: Frey smacks grounder past outstretched reach of second baseman. Home statistician scored as error, Hamilton scored as hit.

b6,ab2: Caye rips a ground hovering zinger past the diving shortstop. Both team sideline statisticians scored as error. Rationale for scoring as hit: speed of ball velocity off bat and better than ordinary effort by shortstop to intervene constitutes hit by these criteria.

Tighter than usual strike zone led to higher than usual number of issued walks