Dawson Reiman drove in four runs and Great Falls scored five times in the fifth inning, kick-starting an offensive landslide that culminated in a 13-4 Chargers blowout of the Kalispell Lakers on Wednesday night at Griffin Field in the opener of a three-game series between the American Legion AA foes.

The two teams will play a pair of seven-inning games today in Kalispell beginning at 5 p.m.

After building a 3-2 lead, the Lakers struggled through a miserable fifth inning that saw Great Falls send 11 men to the plate and tally five runs on six hits. The Lakers never seriously threatened the lead from that point on while the visitors piled on insurance runs in each of the next four innings.

“Once they had that big inning it kind of took the wind out of our sails a little bit and that’s not what you can do, that’s not what you should do in baseball,” Lakers coach Ryan Malmin said.

“You’ve got five or six more innings, five or six more opportunities to kind of chip away and we just didn’t do that.”

The Lakers committed four errors in the loss and, when they did make solid contact at the plate, had the misfortune of lining balls right at Chargers fielders.

Great Falls is battling for the eighth and final spot in the Class AA state tournament, which begins Wednesday in Missoula. The Lakers, meanwhile, are securely in the field although their seed could fluctuate depending on the outcome of their final four games.

“We didn’t play with the sense of urgency that we would expect and we just need to take a step back and know that we’ve got tremendous potential and tomorrow’s a new day and to come out and compete,” Malmin said.

Asked if he expected his team to play with urgency tonight, his response was quick and confident.

“I do,” he said. “This is a great group of kids that have had a tremendous season. I would expect them to come out and compete like they have time and time again throughout the season.”

Great Falls’ five-run fifth started with a Keelan Hayworth double and, after a strikeout, the next five batters all reaching base. Four different Chargers drove in runs in the inning.

“In that five-run inning, we had two or three mistakes that kind of fueled the fire and allowed them to carry that momentum through the rest of the game,” Malmin said. “We came out flat and we played flat and (the score) is the direct result.”

Reiman, batting in the cleanup spot, led a 17-hit Great Falls onslaught by going 3 for 6 with four RBIs. He launched a pair of doubles, including a two-out, two-run two-bagger in the third that put the Chargers in front for the first time, 2-1. Reiman also pitched the last three innings, earning a save.

Joe Broughton went 3 for 4 to lead the Lakers. With two outs and two runners in scoring position in the fourth inning, he caught a break when his ground ball clipped the lip of the infield and hopped over the second baseman into right field, plating both runners.

The Lakers used four different pitchers, with Logan DeCock throwing the first six innings and suffering the loss. All four Kalispell pitchers allowed runs.

Isaiah Roberts started and pitched into the seventh to earn the win for Great Falls.

Wyatt Bleskin went 3 for 5 with four runs scored, Daniel Bonilla was 3 for 6 and Hayworth 3 for 4 for the Chargers.

Great Falls 002 051 311 — 13 17 0

Kalispell 100 200 100 — 4 7 4

Isaiah Roberts, Dawson Reiman (7) and Wyatt Bleskin. Logan DeCock, Jonas Nyman (7), Micah Benson (7), Clay Prosser (9) and Tiler Whiteaker. W — Roberts. L — DeCock. S — Reiman.

GREAT FALLS — Daniel Bonilla 3-6, A.J. Folds 2-5, Bleskin 3-5, Reiman 3-6, Bryce Krattiger 0-3, Matt Houlihan 1-5, Roberts 0-1, Cade Stuff 1-4, Chase Linn 1-4, Keelan Hayworth 3-4.

KALISPELL — Whiteaker 2-5, Benson 0-3, Prosser 0-0, Patrick O’Connell 0-4, Andrew Schleusner 0-1, Leif Ericksen 1-4, Spencer Pisk 0-2, Haydn Schlepp 0-4, Joe Broughton 3-4, Jayson Combs 1-4.

2B — Reiman 2, Bonilla, Bleskin, Hayworth; Broughton. RBIs — Reiman 4, Bonilla, Folds, Krattiger, Houlihan, Stuff, Hayworth; Broughton 2, Benson, Schleusner.