Libby wins 2 at Frenchtown Invite softball

FRENCHTOWN — The Libby Loggers made it three out of four at the Frenchtown Invitational, winning twice Saturday to finish 3-1 at the softball tournament.

The Loggers (8-4) got a complete game from Maddie Willis in a 6-1 win over Corvallis and then outlasted Stevensville 8-6 in a game that lasted five innings because of the tournament time limit. 

Columbia Falls (10-5) also went 2-0 Saturday and 3-1 for the tournament. The Wildkats beat Lewistown 11-1 before subduing Dillon 9-3 in a late game.  

Polson and Ronan each dropped two games Saturday. 

Libby 6, Corvallis 1

Weslee MacDonald went 3-for-3 with a double and home run, and drove in three runs for the Loggers, who got a 7-inning gem from pitcher Maddie Willis. 

Willis, who allowed seven hits and one walk while striking out five, also hit a home run for Libby, as did Rossi Baney. 

MacDonald hit a solo shot as Libby erased a 1-0 deficit in the second inning; Willis hit a two-run home run in the third that made it 4-1. Then Baney came up and made it back-to-back homers for the Loggers. 

Libby 8, Stevensville 6

Dakota Allen, Linzie Willis and Teighler Parker all hit RBI singles in a four-run fourth inning, which provided enough cushion when Stevensville rallied in the fifth. 

Parker’s single brought in Baney and gave the Loggers an 8-2 lead. The Yellowjackets (3-7) rallied with Ciara DesJarlais hitting a two-run double to close the gap to 8-5; Desjarlais then scored on Olivia Hanson’s two-out single.  

Maddie Willis, who came on in relief of MacDonald with one out in the inning, then got Molly Davids to fly out to Parker to end it.  

Setterra McGreevey White and Linzie Willis had two hits each; McGreevey-White had a double and scored twice. 

Columbia Falls 11, Lewistown 1

Kylie Gjesdal-Davis hit a three-run home run, Kendal Moultray hit two doubles while going 3-for-3 and Katie Bulawsky held the Golden Eagles to four hits in five innings. 

Gjesdal-Davis made it 5-0 in the third inning with her homer; Moultray added a two-run double as C-Falls’ lead grew to 7-0 and then scored on Ella Timlick’s single to cap a six-run rally. Moultray scored three times. 

Bulawsky helped her cause with a double; Onnika Lawrence and Kylor Geitzen also supplied a two-base hit. In the circle Bulawsky allowed three walks and struck out three. 

C-Falls 9, Dillon 3

Ella Branstetter held Dillon (5-9) to five hits through six innings, fanning five, and Bella Mann’s two-run double in the fourth gave the Kats a 5-3 lead they wouldn’t relinquish. 

The gap grew to 7-3 in the fifth on an RBI single by Dayvian Edwards; Columbia Falls tacked on two runs in the bottom of the sixth — Gjesdal-Davis and Timlick hit back-to-back RBI doublers — and the game soon ended because of the time limit. 

Branstetter struck out five and allowed home runs to Bridget Lovaas and Maisy Hutchinson. 

Laurel 10, Polson 4

Maddie Turner hit two solo home runs and Jaliyah Pierre added another for Polson, but Laurel had a 9-0 lead before any Lady Pirates did damage. 

Emerson Gunther staked the Locomotives to a 2-0 lead in the first inning with a homer; she added an RBI single in the midst of a seven-run rally in the second. Laurel (9-7) strung together five hits and three walks in the frame. 

Laurel’s Claire Anderson and Adrienne Roth combined to scatter seven Polson hits in five innings. They walked none and struck out five. Kendyl Jaeger also drove in a run for the Lady Pirates. 

Billings Central 13, Polson 9 

The Lady Pirates rallied from an early 6-0 deficit to lead 9-7, then stalled against Billings Central reliever Fia Switzer. 

It was Switzer’s two-run single that put Central (15-2) up 6-0 in the top of the first; Polson answered with five runs in its half of the inning, sparked by back-to-back doubles from Pierre and Nash; Turner drove in Nash with a single and an RBI grounder by Alyssa Thoft scored Graci Hammer with the Pirates’ fifth run. 

In the second inning Hammer hit a two-run home run to put Polson (7-7) ahead 9-7.  

Switzer took over in the third and went four innings, allowing four hits and one unearned run. She fanned one. 

Emma Hernandez hit a solo homer in the fourth for the Rams, who eventually took the lead for good on Sami Ritchie’s pinch-hit RBI double in a five-run fifth inning. 

Dillon 5, Ronan 2

Ronan out-hit Dillon 7-3 with Marie Cheff hitting a double and Nevaeh Perez going 2-for-3, but the Beavers took advantage of six errors by the Maidens to score three unearned runs. 

Keeley Jackson allowed just one hit in 4 1-3 innings in the circle for Ronan, along with two walks and two earned runs. She struck out six. Esther Montoya pitched 1 2-3 scoreless innings. 

Tymber Barnes walked one and struck out eight in six innings for Dillon. 

Florence 15, Ronan 6

Ronan (4-8) got home runs from Cheff, Perez, Jackson and Christine Woodcock but was undone by Florence’s eight-run second inning.  

Perez and Jackson sandwiched their homers around a Natalie Ness single in the third inning, before Woodcock made it back-to-back big flies with Jackson, cutting Florence’s lead to 11-6. 

The Class B Falcons (12-1) got home runs from Jaden Fisher, Morghan Adams and Taylor Pyette — none during their big inning, which included five singles, two doubles and three Ronan errors. Adams’ two-run homer in the fourth pushed the lead to 14-6.