GREAT FALLS — The 12U Purple Wave continue to improve on the season, wrapping up the tournament in Great Falls with a second place finish.

“I saw improvement on defense, they made some really nice plays,” Purple Wave head coach Kirk Murphy said. “The girls got the bats going, putting the ball into play.”

They started Friday with a 14-0 win over the Electric City Heat in three innings. Then, on Saturday, they knocked around the Billings Force with a 13-0 win also in three innings. The afternoon game for the Purple Wave was against the Great Falls Select Gold Team and it was a battle down to the finish. In the bottom of the sixth with the game tied up 1-1, Kylie Murphy hit a deep ball into the gap for a double, then Sarah Rausch drove home Murphy with another double for the Lakers walk-off win.

On Sunday morning, for the start of championship play, the Purple Wave beat Lewistown 10-0 as Tayler Brackey had an inside the park HR.

The Purple Wave then played the Billings Havoc and found themselves down 4-1.

“Then our bats went off,” Murphy said.

The Purple Wave scored six runs in the third inning and went up 7-4.

“All the girls were putting the ball into play,” Murphy said.

However, the Havoc weren’t about to go away. They loaded the bases in the fifth and were threatening to chip away at the Purple Wave’s lead. Then a hard shot was hit Jade Newman to ice cream caught it and stepped on second base for a double play.

“That was a game-changing play,” Murphy said.

The Purple Wave held on for the victory and got a date to the championship game with the Glacier Emeralds. However, they ended up dropping the game 5-4 and got second in the tournament. Murphy said the coaches were very proud of his players and how they’re growing as a team.

“There were some good hard hits that we didn’t have at the other tournaments,” he said.

The Purple Wave will play in the Capital City Classic tournament this weekend in Helena.

14U Polson Lakers take fourth

The 14U Polson Lakers started the weekend off with a hot winning streak in Great Falls. They won their first three games of pool play with a 12-3 win over Livingston, 5-1 victory over Kaizen and a 7-4 matchup over the Billings Havoc Blue Team. That was good enough to get them the third seed going into championship play.

On Sunday, the Lakers battled with the Billings Havoc Red Team. The two teams went into an international tie-breaker which gives each team a chance with a runner on second with no outs to score. Polson was able to score two runs and Billings wasn’t able to respond for a final score of 9-7.

The Lakers suffered their first loss of the tournament when they fell to the Billings Havoc Blue Team 6-4. 

In the conselation game, the Lakers once again fell 8-3 to get fourth in the tournament.

“We really played good, team softball,” Kenny said. “We could have definitely been in the championship game,” Polson Lakers head coach Tom Kenny said. 

Purple Rain look promising in pool play

The 16U Polson Purple Rain looked strong through the first day of pool play at the Great Falls tournament this weekend, but lost in their first game of championship play to Great Falls City Electric.

The Purple Rain won their first three games of pool play, but dropped the fourth game. However, since the fourth game was an added-on extra due to the number of teams, it didn’t count towards the championship seeding.

Normal starter Shay Duford didn’t start the game either.

In the first game of championship play, they led 4-1 in the fifth inning against Great Falls.    The umpire then called illegal pitching on Duford, which Smith said messed up her rhythm. Three errors in the inning also allowed Great Falls to score four runs and take the lead. That eventually turned into a 5-3 loss for the Purple Rain and ended the weekend.

“Overall I think they played tremendous,” Smith said.

For the tournament, two new kids were playing in different positions.

“I thought they did really well, it just changes the ebb and composure on defense,” Smith said.

The Purple Rain will play in the Capital City Classic tournament this weekend in Helena.