It is a well-known and accepted truth that fastpitch softball teams with solid pitching staffs do well.

Enter this year’s version of the Thompson Falls/Noxon Lady Hawks under the guidance of coach Jared Koskela. 

After a 19-10 season last year that yielded a sixth-place finish at the state B-C tournament in Billings, the Lady Hawks will be looking to a talented and veteran pair of pitchers back for their senior seasons. 

Sarah Koskela and Olivia Fitchett, who also excel at catcher and infielder respectively, are back for their final season after achieving all-state status as juniors. 

The two provided Thompson Falls with a solid, one-two punch last year as they lead the team into the season in the always tough Western Division, which is amped up this year with new teams due to the merger between the 7B and 6B conferences of years past. 

Coach Koskela welcomed 20 players to the opening of practice last week, including returning starter Annalise Fairbank, a junior infielder, and senior infielder Teagan Saner, who began her softball career with Thompson Falls, transferred to Plains last year and is back in the fold with T Falls this season. 

Those players, and a flock of talented younger players, including several promising eighth graders give coach Koskela ample reasons to be optimistic for this year. 

“We return several players with state tournament experience,” said Koskela.  “We have solid leadership and four very capable pitchers”. 

Gone from last year’s team are infielder MacKenzie Robinson and outfield Olivia Harnett, both graduated seniors who played a key role in last year’s success.  Also not on the roster this year is junior Gabi Hannum, a talented first baseman and all-around athlete who is not playing this season. 

This year Koskela and crew will be working on several “small ball” aspects of the game, including small game strategy including aggressive base running.  Koskela said the team has a goal of “improving one percent every day”. 

The Western Conference is loaded with talent again, Koskela noted, including Mission-Arlee-Charlo, which also had a good season last year. 

“MAC is always the local target on the calendar,” Koskela said. “The super conference this season means we will face each divisional opponent (12 total teams) twice.” 

The coach added Florence and its “supreme softball culture” as another conference team that will be tough, along with Troy, Plains and Eureka. 

Both Plains and Eureka enter the season with new coaches (Jon Zigler at Plains) which Koskela said brings an interesting impact of improvement and competition.  He also listed Troy as a dark horse team which can beat any team if overlooked. 

As the season unfolds, despite some stubborn early Spring snow and rain, Koskela said the key to success is “simple”. 

“Just to get one percent better every day and be a thorn in the side of our opponents”. 

The Lady Hawks will be at home in T Falls (Previs Field) this Friday (Mar 28) for a double-header versus Ennis.  They journey to Three Forks the next day to take on the always-tough Wolves, who were 15-7 last year.