MISSOULA — With one out and a runner on second Saturday, Butte seemed on the verge of a big inning when Matt Donaldson stroked a line drive toward right.

Then Cody Schweikert, Columbia Falls’ 6-foot-3 first baseman, laid out and caught it. The next Bulldog got a hit, but it didn’t score a run, and a 5-0 Wildcat lead was protected.

The way Schweikert celebrated, the game might have been over right there. As it was the Cats cruised to a 16-2 win in the third-place game at the State Baseball tournament.

To get there the Wildcats needed a walk-off 10-9 victory over Belgrade earlier Saturday, on Dayne Tu’s RBI double with two out in the eighth inning.

Then came the laugher: Columbia Falls ended the game early with an 11-run fifth inning.

“It was a whole lot of fun,” said Schweikert, who quarterbacked the Wildcats to the State A football title game, and played post on the basketball team that finished third at State “It was definitely a different sport than basketball and football. 

“There was definitely a learning curve, but it was real fun to get to learn the game again, and … meet these new teammates, get to the state tournament again and get another trophy.”

In the championship game, Florence beat Hamilton 4-2.

Columbia Falls 16, Butte 2

Freshman Jett Pitts had four hits and drove in five runs for the Wildcats, starting with an RBI single in the top of the second inning.

After Butte (12-8) loaded the bases in the second inning and didn’t score, Kellen Kroger and Pitts sandwiched RBI singles around a double by Schweikert to go up 5-0.

By then Kroger had made a couple web gems himself.

“Our defense today, and in this game against Butte,” Wildcats coach Chad Green began. “Kellen Kroger had three huge catches out in center field. The first one I thought there was no way he gets there (on Zack O’Connell’s drive to lead off the second inning), and he ends up running it down.”

Schweikert’s stab came an inning later.

“I love that kid,” Green said of the Montana Griz football signee, who scored four runs. “He’s all jacked up, and our whole team gets jacked up with him.”

Butte got a walk, three hits and two runs in the fourth inning, but then Columbia Falls sent 15 men to the plate in the fifth against three Butte pitchers. The Bulldogs had a couple misplays mixed in with an RBI triple by Reggie Sapa, another double by Schweikert and two run-scoring singles by Pitts, who threw the first two innings before Nico Young and Dawson Juntunen finished up.

Kroger and courtesy runner Jory Hill scored three times each.

On Thursday the Hamilton Broncs used a six-run fifth inning to subdue Columbia Falls 10-7. The Wildcats recovered to win three games and finish 18-3.

“We beat them earlier,” Green said of the Broncs. “We had one bad inning, and down here you can’t have a bad inning. Two teams get to end their season on a win and we got to be one of them.”

C-Falls    023    0(11)    -    16    14    1

Butte    000    20    -    2    9    5

Reggie Sapa, Nico Young (3), Dawson Juntunen (4) and AC Chilson. Matt Donaldson, C Solomon (5), Tyler Duffy (5) and Quinn Cox.

COLUMBIA FALLS — Sapa 2-4, Young 0-4, W Dodson 0-0, Kellen Kroger 2-3, Cody Schweikert 1-4, Chilson 2-4, Jett Pitts 4-4, Trenton DeRosa 0-0, Dayne Tu 1-3, Jace Hill 1-3, Connor Venezio 1-3, Jory Hill 0-0. 

BUTTE — Tocher Lee 1-1, Cayde Stajcar 1-3, Cox 1-3, Logan Carden 3-3, Donaldson 1-3, Zack O’Connell 0-2, Alex Jorgenson 2-2, Karsen McEwen 0-3, Will Stephan 0-2, Gavin Trudgeon 0-0.

2B — Schweikert, Carden. 3B — Sapa. RBIs — Pitts 5, Venezio 2, Sapa 2, Young, Kroger, Schweiert, Chilson, Tu, Ha.Hill, Carden.

C-Falls 10, Belgrade 9

Tu’s single was just the final big hit for the Wildcats: Chilson had an RBI double that knotted the game at 9-all with one out in the eighth inning.

There were also singles by Pitts, Tu and Jace Hill to lead off the seventh, when Columbia Falls trailed 8-6. Sapa and Kroger supplied sacrifice flies to send it to extras (Kroger’s turned into a double play, but Tu scored ahead of the third out).

Young and Schweikert scored twice for the Wildcats, who were actually outhit 14-13. Belgrade’s Ryas Olsen was a handful with three hits; the Panthers (15-5) combined five hits with a dropped third strike to put up five runs in the fourth inning. 

Unlike Thursday, the big inning didn’t kill the Cats. Tu made sure of it.

“Last thing I needed on a doubleheader day, running out of pitching, was to play an extra inning. But we did what we had to do,” Green said. “And then Dayne Tu comes up there, runner on second base and hits it in the gap. Let the celebration begin.”

Belgrade    001    500    21    -    9    13    4

C-Falls    221    001    22    -    10    14    0

Brayton Van Dyken, Gage Banks (7) and Andrew Hazen. Juntunen, Matthew Mitts (4), Sapa (4), Kroger (6) and Chilson.

BELGRADE — Ryas Olson 3-5, Sawyer Olson 1-3,  Keenan Kraft 1-3, Van Dyken 2-5, Mason Zimmer 1-3, Banks 2-3, Hazen 2-4, Trenton Neill 0-3, Landon Wanders 1-2.

COLUMBIA FALLS — Sapa 3-4, Young 3-3, Kroger 1-2, Schweikert 1-4, Mitts 0-2, Venezio 0-2, Chilson 2-5, Pitts 1-5, Tu 1-5, Ja.Hill 2-4.

2B — Van Dyken, Kraft, Zimmer, Chilson. RBIs — S.Olson, R.Olson, Kraft, Zimmer, Banks, Hazen, Wanders, Chilson 3, Schweikert 2, Tu, Kroger, Young, Sapa.

Butte 11, Eureka 6

Cayde Stajcar had three hits — including a solo home run and a double — and scored four times for Butte, and Carden had two hits and drove in four runs.

The Bulldogs took a 7-1 lead after three innings and didn’t look back, combining nine hits (four for extra bases) with nine walks and six hit batters. 

Stajcar also threw four no-hit innings at the Lions, though he walked seven. He gave up one run and struck out eight.

Rogan Lytle, Tyce Van Orden and Tristan Libby drove in runs for Eureka, which ended up 16-5-1.

Eureka    010    022    1    -    6    4    0

Butte    331    031    x    -    11    9    0

Tristan Butts, Tyce Van Orden (4), Rogan Lytle (5) and Lytle, Butts (6). Staycar, K McGillen (5), J Williamson (5) and Cox.

EUREKA — Lytle 0-2, Rowan Burow 0-3, Butts 0-3, AJ Truman 1-4, Van Orden 1-3, Emmet McKim 0-3, Logan Cuff 0-3, Michael VanGilder 1-3, Tristan Libby 1-1.

BUTTE — Lee 0-3, Stajcar 3-3, Cox 1-2, Carden 2-4, Jorgensen 0-2, Donalds 1-3, O’Connell 0-1, Trudgeon 0-0, McEween 1-3, Harris-Huerta 0-0, Stephan 1-4.

2B — Cox, Stajcar, Donaldson. HR — Stajcar. RBIs — Lytle, Van Orden, Libby, Carden 4, Cox 2, Donalds 2, Stajcar, O’Connell, McEwen.

Florence 4, Hamilton 2

Chase Wagner’s sacrifice fly broke a 2-2 tie in the fifth inning for Florence, and he added an RBI single in the sixth for the Falcons (18-1).

That backed the pitching of Jake Roth, who allowed five hits and four walks but just one earned run. He struck out eight.

The battle of Bitterroot schools — they sit 27 miles apart — ended with Roth working around a one-out double by Hamilton’s Jackson Lubke. Lubke also started on the hill and threw five innings, allowing seven hits, three walks and four runs (two earned).

Andrew Ricklefs and Atticus Southworth drove in runs for the Broncs, who finished 18-4 — with two losses to Florence and one each to Columbia Falls and Butte.

State Baseball Tournament

May 16-18

Ogren/Allegiance Field, Missoula

Thursday

Belgrade 8, Whitefish 7, 8 innings

Florence 11, Eureka 7

Butte 12, Polson 8

Hamilton 10, Columbia Falls 7

Friday

Eureka 15, Whitefish 8, loser out

Columbia Falls 8, Polson 7, loser out

Florence 8, Belgrade 0, semifinal

Hamilton 10, Butte 4, semifinal

Saturday

Butte 11, Eureka 6, lo

Columbia Falls 10, Belgrade 9, 8 innings, lo

Columbia Falls 16, Butte 2, third

Florence 4, Hamilton 2, championship