Maroons season slips away

By Bill Foley - 05/24/2008

Butte Central pitcher Kelli O’Leary throws to Hannah Manion covering first base after fielding a grounder by Hamilton’s Samantha Wood. Wood made it to base safely in the sixth inning of their loser out game Friday in Anaconda.

ANACONDA — There are bad breaks, and then there are holes in the fence.

The Butte Central softball team was sent into the long offseason thinking about what might have been Friday largely because of one small hole — barely big enough to fit a softball through it — in the backstop of the southwest field on the outskirts of the Charlotte Yeoman Martin Complex.

Hamilton scored the winning run when an errant BC throw home slipped through the fence in the bottom of the sixth inning of a 2-1 win that ended the Maroons’ season at the Class A state tournament.

“It was a tough break,” said BC senior pitcher Kelli O’Leary, who capped her stellar prep career with a hard-luck loss.

“You could throw 50 balls and you couldn’t throw it through there,” BC coach Jim Patrick said. “In 60 years I’ve never seen that.

“I won’t get over this for quite a while. Probably never.”

Patrick said he took solace in the fact that his team came together at the end of the season and played four strong games at state.

“We’ll be back next year,” Patrick said. “We had a good tournament.”

The BC coach also singled out the solid careers of his two seniors — second baseman Hannah Manion is the other — and thanked his assistant coaches Teal LaVelle, Theresa Rader, Kelci Thatcher and Sid deBarathy.

Hamilton 2, Butte Central 1

The Maroons were six outs from advancing, and O’Leary, who struck out seven Hamilton batters, was on cruise control.

Then Kristen Ferguson beat out an infield single on a bang-bang play at first base. Amanda Hood followed with an infield single, and the runners were on second and third when Melissa Hood hit a slow-rolling single to no-man’s land between second and third.

Needing a perfect throw to gun down Ferguson from first, an off-balanced Quinn Peoples, a freshman, saw her throw to junior catcher Brooke Pokorny sail wide.

With the backstop on the field extremely close to the plate, the Amanda Hood wasn’t even trying to score as

Pokorny turned for the ball. The catcher’s knees buckled like Carl Yastrzemski chasing a Bucky Dent home run when she saw the ball sneak threw the fence.

Hood was awarded the plate.

The Maroons mounted a comeback in the top of the seventh when Manion and junior shortstop Kacey Daily led off the inning with back-to-back singles off senior pitcher Nicki Koning.

But Koning settled down to get the next three in order — two by way of the K — to end the game, and the BC season at 15-12.

Central took a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning when Daily ripped an RBI single to left, scoring O’Leary, who singled.

From there it was a pitchers’ battle.

Daily had three hits to lead the Maroons, while O’Leary had two. Pokorny and joined Manion with one.

All of the BC hits were singles.

Sam Wood’s two singles paced the Broncs, who went on to lose to Belgrade in the next game.

Koning struck out 10, including the side in order in the sixth, in the win.

Central 000 100 0 — 1 7 1

Hamilton 000 001 x — 2 5 0

Kelli O’Leary and Brooke Pokorny; Nicki Koning and Sarah Callaghan. W — Koning. L — O’Leary (15-11).

BUTTE CENTRAL (15-12) — Pokorny 1-4, Saidee Johnson 0-2, Quinn Peoples 0-3, O’Leary 2-3, Amber Orizotti 0-2, Hannah Manion 1-3, Kacey Daily 3-3, Kylie Orizotti 0-3, Brianne Krzan 0-3.

HAMILTON (13-13) — Kristen Ferguson 1-3, Amanda Hood 1-3, Melissa Hood 1-3, Callaghan 0-3, Koning 0-3, Sam Wood 2-2, Annie Schultz 0-2, Brittany Keimig 0-3, Kaylie Strandberg 0-2.

RBIs — Daily, M. Hood.

Butte Central 8, Whitefish 4

O’Leary hit a moon-shot grand slam to highlight a six-run third inning as the Maroons turned back the Bulldogs.

The grand slam, O’Leary’s eighth home run of the season, cleared the center-field fence.

“I felt myself dip,” referring to dropping her right shoulder, “so I wanted to swing as hard as I could. I didn’t think it was out.”

The slam scored Brianne Krzan, Pokorny and Saidee Johnston and came two batters after Johnson hit a sacrifice fly, scoring Kylie Orizotti, and reached on an error.

Daily capped the inning by doubling in Amber Orizotti, who walked.

The Bulldog scored four to cut the lead to 6-2 in the fifth, but the Maroons answered back in the bottom of the inning when Kylie Orizotti, a junior third baseman, drove in Manion and Daily with a two-out single to right.

That was all the insurance O’Leary needed, as the pitcher picked up four of her 12 strikeouts in the final two innings.

Adele FauntLeRoy’s two hits paced Whitefish.

Whitefish 000 040 0 — 4 6 4

Central 006 020 x — 8 5 0

Torey Ost and Desiree Clarke; Kelli O’Leary and Brooke Pokorny, Hannah Manion (5). W — O’Leary (15-10). L — Ost.

WHITEFISH (7-17) — Adele FauntLeRoy 2-3, Ost 1-4, Clark 0-2, Hailey Mortensen 0-3, Devyn Ost 0-2, Shannon Holmes 2-3, Kristi Whisler 0-1, Shelbi Long 0-1, Taylor Ybarra-Brunty 0-2, Camille Williams 1-3.

BUTTE CENTRAL (15-11) — Pokorny 2-2, MacKenzie Doherty 0-0, Saidee Johnston 0-1, Quinn Peoples 0-3, O’Leary 1-4, Amber Orizotti 1-3, Manion 0-2, Kacey Daily 1-2, Kylie Orizotti 1-3, Brianne Krzan 0-2.

HR — O’Leary. RBIs — O’Leary 4, K. Orizotti 2, Johnston, Daily; FauntLeRoy.

Class A state softball tournament

at Anaconda

Friday

Undefeated semifinal

Libby 3, Corvallis 0

Undefeated quarter quarterfinals

Corvallis 3,

Polson 2 (9 innings)

Libby 13, Belgrade 3

(6 innings)

Loser out

Frenchtown 4,

Billings Central 2

Columbia Falls 8, Laurel 5

Butte Central 8, Whitefish 4

Hamilton 7, Sidney 0

Frenchtown 5,

Columbia Falls 1

Hamilton 2, Butte Central 1

Frenchtown 8, Polson 5

Belgrade 8, Hamilton 5

Saturday

at Stodden Park in Butte

Loser-out

9 a.m. — Frenchtown (20-5) vs. Belgrade (19-4)

11 a.m. — Corvallis (21-3) vs. Frenchtown/Belgrade winner

Championship

1 p.m. — Libby (21-4) vs. Corvallis, Frenchtown or Belgrade.

3 p.m. — If necessary