Lakeland Hawks walk off Polson Lady Pirates, 13-12

FRENCHTOWN — Polson’s Logan McCrae hit a game-tying three-run home run in the top of the seventh inning, but Lakeland, Idaho squeezed home a run in the bottom of the inning to beat the Lady Pirates 13-12 in softball Saturday.

The game was the first part of a doubleheader for Lakeland — the school in Rathdrum, Idaho beat Frenchtown 9-7 later Saturday to improve to 6-3 — and turned in the fifth inning when the Hawks scored nine times to erase an 8-2 Polson lead.  

Kjersten Drake started the rally with a leadoff homer; the Hawks sent 12 hitters to plate and four of them had extra base hits, including Raygen Dutton’s solo homer that capped the uprising and put Lakeland up 11-8. 

Graci Hammer doubled and scored in the sixth inning for Polson (1-3), but Lakeland got that run back in its half on a Reese Vanek RBI single. 

McCrae’s seventh-inning home run came with two outs. The Hawks got singles from Drake and Dutton to open the bottom of the inning, and Abby Helmholz’ bunt brought in Drake. 

That offset two, 2-run home runs by Polson’s Jaliyah Pierre in the first and fifth innings, the latter putting Polson up 8-2. Hammer and McCrae had RBI doubles in the second inning. McCrae had three hits and four RBIs; Pierre drove in five runs. Hammer had two doubles and scored twice.