Wherever the cards may eventually fall in the Northern conference playoff race, the Hawks are ready, and eager to play until the final out is called.

Facing an uncertain softball playoff fate as the regular season plays out, coach Jared Koskela and his Thompson Falls-Noxon Blue Hawks can control their own destiny by getting a win over Plains (results of that game played in Thompson Falls Tuesday were not available at press time) and/or a victory over league-leading MAC in Mission May 12. But Koskela and company are prepared either way.

In between the key conference games, the Hawks have a non-conference weekend on tap, visiting Deer Lodge Friday and hosting Anaconda at Pirk’s Place in Thompson Falls Saturday. Koskela had earlier referred to this stretch of the season a running of the gauntlet of sorts for his young team. He is sticking to that assessment.

“We want to finish strong, to finish the gauntlet right, this is the most important part of the season,” he said. "We will use the games with Deer Lodge and Anaconda to get ready and give MAC our best shot next week.”

The Hawks gave Eureka one of their best shots of the season, shutting down the Lions on their own field 10-3 Friday in a game crucial for playoff position. MAC leads the Northern conference with a 5-0 league record, Troy is 5-2, Thompson Falls-Noxon 3-3, Plains 1-3 and Eureka 0-6.

The fourth and fifth place teams face a playoff, on the higher seed’s home field, a one-game chance to advance on to the Western B Divisional tournament the week of the Western B in Anaconda.

In three important Northen conference games last week, the Hawks defeated Plains 16-14 in Plains April 27, lost to Troy 8-2 in Thompson Falls Thursday, and rebounded to down Eureka 10-3 in Eureka Friday.

At Eureka, the Hawks broke open a tense game with a big inning triggered by a near-perfect bunt by freshman Audrey Fairbank. “We had runners on second and third and Audrey put down the perfect bunt. It hit the plate and just stopped, stayed right there, fair

and in play. Their catcher made the throw to first but no one was there in time. We ended up scoring two runs.”

A few minutes later and eighth grader Kaylie Mercer applied the crushing blow, a two-run home run over the deep left field fence in Eureka, a place where Koskela had joked before the game where he had never seen anyone hit a home run. “The fence seems like 20 feet farther out in Eureka than anywhere else,” he said.

Gladly eating his words on that one, Koskela said that Mercer’s first career dinger was a line drive that just kept going and going until it hit the top of the fence and was declared gone.

Mercer finished the game with three big RBI, Fairbank had two hits, two RBI and two runs scored, Annalise Fairbank added a hit, a run and an RBI, Kassidy Dana was two for four with a run, Addie Traver two for four with a run, Nevaeh Christensen was two for two setting up two runs scored by Gabby Taylor, Kylee Borgmann went one for three with a run and an RBI, Marley Robinson went one for three, Madds Thompson added a hit, a run and a run batted in, and Kaydence Pavlik was one for three with an RBI.

Pavlik pitched up the pitching win, working all seven innings, allowing only six hits and two walks.

Against Troy, the Trojans scored four runs in the top of the second and made the lead stick the rest of the way behind the effective pitching of Hallee Wallace, who allowed only five Hawk hits and walked only one.

Annalise Fairbank, Dana, Pavlik, Robinson and Borgmann all had base hits against Troy, Pavlik and Robinson scored runs and Audrey Fairbank and Borgmann had an RBI each.

In the big rain-interrupted win over Plains, which could turn into a very important result in the big scheme of things in the race to avoid the dreaded Western B-C play-in game, the Hawks knocked out 21 base hits.

Senior captain Annalise Fairbank went four for six with a double, driving in four runs and scoring four more, sister Audrey Faribank had two hits with another double and four RBI, and Dana was four for five with yet another double and three RBI.

Robinson smacked an opposite field home run, Borgmann was two for three with three runs scored, Christensen was a perfect five for five with two RBI and another run and Pavlik was two for three with a run scored and an RBI.

    SAFE AT THIRD – Lady Hawk Kylee Borgmann was safe on this play at third base during Thompson Falls-Noxon’s game with Troy at Pirk’s Place in Thompson Falls April 30. (John Hamilton/vp-mi)