COLUMBIA FALLS — Senior center fielder Carlee Brown and sophomore left fielder Peyton Kehr combined for six hits and three RBIs in the Columbia Falls Wildkats’ 7-2 Northwestern A softball victory over the Polson Lady Pirates on Tuesday.

Brown, the lead-off hitter, went 3 for 4 with an RBI and scored two runs while Kehr, batting second, drove in two runs on her 3 for 4 effort, highlighted by her third-inning double which nearly cleared the center field fence for a home run.

It was the bottom of Columbia Falls’ order, however, that sparked the pivotal four-run fourth inning which broke the game open.

Batting seventh, Wildkats’ left fielder Madi Fetters started things off with a base hit up the middle. Catcher Samantha Collins bunted to move Fetters to second, but a throwing error from Polson pitcher Camas Renault allowed both runners to advance.

Second baseman Katie Price, Brown and Kehr would string together three consecutive RBI-singles and when the inning was over, the Wildkats had a 6-0 advantage.

“They put a lot of pressure on them,” Columbia Falls coach Dave Kehr said. “Carlee’s fast, Peyton is hitting the ball well, but it’s all the way through the lineup. A couple girls struggled, but then the bottom of the lineup picked it up. Katie Price did well. Sam Collins had a couple of big plays for us.

“Ashley (Trueblood) pitched really well. It was a team effort. Lottie (Ellis) did a great job at shortstop. I subbed in at a couple spots and they did a nice job. It was a total game by a lot of players.”

The Wildkats tacked on one more in the fifth and that was more than enough for Trueblood.

The senior pitcher allowed just six hits, collected six strikeouts on 93 pitches and carried a shut out into the seventh inning before holding off a Polson rally.

Ashley Benson and Hannah Fryberger had back-to-back singles for the Lady Pirates in the final frame, leading to consecutive RBI fielder’s choices from Jaiden Toth and Kaelen Wall.

Trueblood remained poised and got Kaelyn Smith to pop out to end the game.

“(Ashley) is doing well. She’s throwing hard from start to finish which is nice,” coach Kehr said.

“She kept them off balance. They weren’t feeling too good in the box. They had a couple hard hits, but she did a good job.”

Polson did manage six hits in the game, but the costly fourth inning put what was a tight ball game out of reach.

Toth, Wall and Smith all had hits for Polson in the first three spots of the Lady Pirates order, but the Lady Pirates stranded seven runners on base, four of which were in scoring position.

Renault, a sophomore, struck out one in five innings of work. She was relieved by fellow-sophomore Haley Fyant. Fyant allowed a hit and struck out one in her relief appearance.

“We’re very young and inexperienced at the key position, that’s pitching,” Polson coach Larry Smith said, “but they’ll come around. (Fyant) came off the bench and closed things down, and I thought (Camas) did well. She had that one bad inning and those always seem to start with an error. Unfortunately, it was her error. In all my years of coaching, I see that big inning start on an error.

“We just have to work harder. We have to pick each other up more. When they got down on the scoreboard, they got down in the dugout. You can’t do that.”

Polson will look to regroup at the Belgrade Invitational on Friday and Saturday.

The Wildkats will travel to Whitefish on Thursday to take on the Bulldogs at 5:30 p.m. at Smith Fields.

Polson 000 000 2 — 2 6 3

Columbia Falls 011 410 x — 7 10 1

Camas Renault, Haley Fyant (5) and Sarah Rausch. Ashley Trueblood and Samantha Collins.

POLSON — Jaiden Toth 1-4, Kaelen Wall 1-4, Kaelyn Smith 1-4, Taylor Brackey 1-3, Camas Renault 0-0, Haley Fyant 0-1, Sarah Rausch 0-2, Lydia Dupuis 0-3, Skyla Krantz 0-2, Ashley Benson 1-1, Hannah Fryberger 1-3.

COLUMBIA FALLS — Carlee Brown 3-4, Peyton Kehr 3-4, Ashley Trueblood 0-3, Breanna Friar 0-3, Morgan Campbell-Queen 0-1, Alysha Cantu 0-4, Lottie Ellis 0-3, Madi Fetters 2-2, Samantha Collins 1-1, Katie Price 1-2, Kaitlyn Hoerner 0-1.

2B — Kehr. RBIs — Toth, Wall, Brown, Kehr 2, Collins, Price.