Kalispell falls to 0-3 in Sapa-Johnsrud Memorial Tournament play

WHITEFISH - Kalispell's Class AA American Legion baseball team has been eliminated from the Championship Round of the Sapa-Johnsrud 22nd Annual Memorial Tournament.

The Lakers lost Thursday night in Glacier Twins Stadium at Memorial Park to Redmond, Ore., in extra innings, 12-8.

It was a tough one to swallow for the Lakers, who will play their Western AA rival Lethbridge today at 9 a.m. in a meaningless game.

The Lakers are 0-3 in the tourney with the one round-robin game left. Redmond improved to 1-2 with the victory. But even if the High Desert loses to the Spokane Dodgers today and the Lakers beat Lethbridge to knot up their round-robin records, the High Desert wins the head-to-head tiebreaker. Only one of the nine teams is eliminated from the five-day tournament's Championship Round. The Lakers' National Division has five teams in it while the American Division has only four teams - and the Championship Round pits equal-seeded teams from each division against each other.

The Glacier Twins played the Williston, N.D., Keybirds Thursday night.

But because the Kalispell-Redmond game went to two extra innings on top of starting more than a half hour late, the Twins game ended past the Daily Inter Lake's press deadline.

After three days of tournament action, each division has an unbeaten team: the Spokane Dodgers of the National Division and Calgary Blues of the American Division. Both are crushing opponents and looking to square off in Saturday's 7 p.m. title tilt. The rest of the seeds for each division are being hotly contested.

By tonight's Skills Contest and Home Run Derby at 8:30 p.m., everything should be sorted out.

Redmond 12, Kalispell 8 (9 innings)

In a game of inches, Kalispell's loss can be attributed soley on the lack of timely hits.

That's it. The Lakers got into trouble and they got themselves out of trouble just fine. They even had some clutch hits. There just weren't enough of them.

The Lakers stranded 18 runners on base, including leaving the bases loaded in the eighth and ninth innings without scoring any runs.

Tied 8-8 heading into extra innings, Redmond got five of its 10 hits and Kalispell still outhit the High Desert 14-10.

As if the hits and stranded base runners weren't enough salt in the wound of the loss, Kalispell had plenty of big, clutch plays to rally from a 4-0 deficit it got itself into with two errors and three walks in the top of the first inning - plus the team executed four sacrifice bunts perfectly and got a hit out of another.

Stephan Malkuch led off the bottom of the first inning for the Lakers by pulling the second pitch he saw over the left field fence for his third home run in as many games. Dan Conners smashed the very next pitch off the left-center field wall for a triple and scored on a groundout.

Trailing 7-6 with two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning, catcher Ryan Laughlin hit a ground ball up the middle and knocked in Geoff Hogan from second base for the tying run. Laughlin, as the potential game-winning run, was stranded on third base.

Then after Redmond leadoff hitter Marques Hase - who went 4-for-5 with two RBIs, three stolen bases and three runs scored - knocked in the go-ahead run with two outs in the top of the seventh inning with a line drive into left field, the Lakers came back with a run of their own in the bottom of the seventh.

Malkuch led off the seventh with a single up the middle. Then on Redmond's left-handed pitcher Brenden Ohlde's first move, which he ended up throwing over to first to try and pick Malkuch off on, Malkuch took off for second and beat first baseman Cam Peterson's throw, which ended up bouncing into left field and advancing Malkuch to third with no outs. Conners followed with a shallow fly ball into right field that Jared Young ran too far up on and missed it and Malkuch scored.

But the Lakers gave it away in the ninth when Redmond's Tanner Hase led off with a walk, before two more errors were committed.

After the first inning, there was only one inning Kalispell stranded less than two runners.

Ugh.

Marques Hase, Redmond's shortstop, was the only High Desert player with more than one hit.

Malkuch had three hits for the Lakers and four others followed with two hits apiece: Conners, Adam Olson, Zac Ford and Laughlin.

Tyler Reichhoff absorbed the tough-luck loss on the mound. He allowed eight hits and two walks over the final 6 2/3 innings while striking out two. Two of the six runs he gave up were unearned. Zach Davis started on the mound for the Lakers and lasted only 3 1/3 innings becaues he gave up eight free passes. Only three of the six runs he gave up were earned. He allowed just two hits.

Brenden Ohlde picked up the victory for Redmond. He relieved Tyler Hilgers, who hit six batters in four innings, and spread out nine hits over five innings. He gave up only two walks - and one of them was intentional - while striking out four.

The Lakers dropped to 27-25 on the season after three straight hard-to-swallow losses in the tournament.

Redmond 400 210 104 - 12 10 3

Kalispell 200 311 100 - 8 14 4

Tyler Hilgers, Brenden Ohlde (5) and Tanner Hase. Zach Davis, Tyler Reichhoff (4) and Ryan Laughlin. W - Ohlde. L - Reichhoff.

REDMOND - Marques Hase 4-5, Jed Keener 1-5, Bryan Shannon 1-6, Hilgers 0-1, Ohlde 1-3, Cam Peterson 1-3, Joey Graves 0-4, Hase 1-3, Tyler Rucinski 0-2, Daniel Bulkley 0-3, Jared Young 0-2, Steve Bigelow 1-1.

KALISPELL (27-25) - Stephan Malkuch 3-4, Dan Conners 2-6, Jake Fitsimmons 0-3, John White 0-2, Geoff Hogan 1-4, Adam Olson 2-5, Zac Ford 2-4, Sam Freudenberg 1-1, Laughlin 2-4, Tucker Hankinson 1-4, Chris Hooley 0-3.

RBIs - Red. 7 (M. Hase 2, Keener 2, Graves, T. Hase, Peterson), Kal. 7 (Olson 2, Malkuch, Fitzsimmons, Hogan, Conners, Laughlin). HR - Red. 0, Kal. 1 (Malkuch). 3B - Red. 0, Kal. 1 (Conners). 2B - Red. 2 (T. Hase, Peterson), Kal. 0. SB - Red. 5 (M. Hase 3, Shannon, Bulkley), Kal. 0. SAC - Red. 0, Kal. 4 (Olson, Hankinson, Hooley, Laughlin).