Bulldog baseball dropped by Wildcats, Vikings

Whitefish Pilot | Whitefish Pilot | UPDATED 1 day AGO

This Bulldog slides in safe past CFalls' Tayvin Beach at Smith Fields Wednesday. (Chris Peterson/Hungry Horse News)

Cullen Wallace pitching during the game against Bigfork Thursday, April 30. (Kelsey Evans/Whitefish Pilot)

Tait Orme up to bat at the game against Bigfork Thursday, April 30. (Kelsey Evans/Whitefish Pilot)

Drew Queen at Smith Fields Wednesday, April 29. (Chris Peterson/Hungry Horse News)

Finn Ryan batting at Smith Fields on Thursday, April 30. (Kelsey Evans/Whitefish Pilot)

Wyatt Hanchett cheers with his teammates. (Kelsey Evans/Whitefish Pilot)

Reed Boyer runs to first base. (Kelsey Evans/Whitefish Pilot)

Whitefish had a challenging, up and down week of Northwest A baseball, dropping back-to-back home contests to league rivals, before rebounding with a road win over Libby, and then rallying past Glacier on Monday.

The week began Wednesday at Smith Fields with a matchup against Columbia Falls, where the Wildcats earned an 8-2 victory.

The Bulldogs found the scoreboard first with two runs coming in on a groundout from Luke Dalen. Reyd Hobart came in on the play, while Drew Queen scored on a throwing error. Tait Orme went four innings on the mound for Whitefish, allowing one run on nine hits.

Columbia Falls turned a 2-2 tie into a comfortable win by erupting for six runs in the fifth inning. Wildcat Jaxson Cadwell delivered the decisive blow with a two-run triple, while Lincoln Fisher also drove in a pair of runs. Jett Pitts added six innings on the bump, allowing two runs on four hits. He fanned six. Tayvin Beach added one no-hit inning in relief. Columbia Falls extended its winning streak to three and improved to 8-3.

The Bulldogs returned to Smith Fields Thursday but once again came up short, falling 7-5 to Bigfork. Whitefish built an early 3-0 advantage behind RBI efforts from Orme and Carter Godsey, but Bigfork answered with a decisive six-run third inning. Hayden Mayer and Mason Lewis ignited the rally with back-to-back triples, swinging the momentum firmly in the Vikings’ favor. Mayer went on to pitch a complete game, scattering eight hits and seven walks over seven innings.

Whitefish closed the gap to 6-5 in the fifth on an RBI single from Hobart and a wild pitch, but Bigfork added an insurance run in the seventh in order to seal the win. The loss was Whitefish’s fourth straight at home and dropped them to 6-5 at the time.

Whitefish finally landed a win Saturday in Libby, with a 14-2 victory over the Loggers. Finn Ryan set the tone early with a first-inning home run, and the Bulldogs steadily added on before blowing the game open with a five-run seventh inning. Dalen capped that rally with a two-run double, part of a three-RBI day, while Ryan also drove in three. Whitefish collected 11 hits and nine walks, with Reed Boyer going 3-for-4 from the bottom of the order. On the mound, Liam Krezowski earned the win by allowing just two runs over four innings, and the bullpen of Boyer and Gavin Knapp surrendered only one hit the rest of the way.

On Monday, the Bulldogs rallied past Glacier to a 12-9 victory in nonconference play.

Whitefish (8-5) finished with 10 hits and worked seven walks, with production up and down the lineup. Orme drove in three runs, while Queen and Dalen each added two hits as the Bulldogs built enough offense to survive a back-and-forth game.

The teams traded runs early, with Whitefish jumping ahead in the first before Glacier answered at 2-2. Boyer’s home run in the second gave the Bulldogs a 4-2 edge, but Glacier tied it again in the third. Whitefish broke through in the fourth with three runs, highlighted by Orme’s RBI double, then got separation in the sixth when Ryan launched a two-run homer.

Joaquin Gonzalez steadied Whitefish in the middle innings, allowing one run over three innings in relief. Ryan started and Aidan Mintz handled late work as Whitefish pieced together the win on the mound.

The win lifted Whitefish to 8-5 overall. Whitefish was set up for a rematch with Libby back at Smith Fields Tuesday afternoon, followed by another rematch on Thursday, away at Columbia Falls, before closing out the week with a home game against Flathead on Friday.