Bigfork players make big contributions at tourneys

Glacier's 15-year-old Babe Ruth All-Stars fought back from two early pool play losses and finished second in the district tournament last weekend in Ronan and Polson. Kalispell American League outscored Glacier 9-7 in Sunday's championship game.

With the runner-up finish, Glacier qualified for the state tournament this week in Havre.

At state, the Glacier All-Stars were pitted against North Valley (Bitterroot) at 2 p.m. Wednesday. That's the first of four pool play games, and then Glacier goes into single-elimination bracket play. The state champion qualifies for the regional tournament, which begins Aug. 2 in Centralia, Wash.

Glacier opened the district tourney with a 6-3 loss to Kalispell American League on Friday.

"We didn't hit well to make up the runs at the end," Glacier head coach Chuck Houston said. "We didn't bring the bats."

Kootenai Valley, a Libby-area team, started strong against Glacier and posted an 11-8 win later Friday.

"We were quiet until the last couple of innings," Houston said. "They really hit well against our starting pitcher."

Glacier lost standout pitcher Jim Dunnigan in that game when he suffered a broken nose during a collision at home plate. His status for state is questionable.

The Glacier All-Stars regrouped and rolled past Mission Valley 12-6 Saturday.

"We came out of the blocks swinging well," Houston said. "We had good hitting throughout the lineup."

A key hit was a two-run homer by Bigfork's Cody Dopps in the sixth inning to go with his double in the second inning.

"They are kind of our nemsis," Houston said of Mission Valley. "Over the years we've had trouble beating them so we were pretty fired up for that game."

With bracket play starting Sunday morning, Glacier, seeded fourth, faced top seeded Mission again and posted an 11-6 victory.

Dopps, Dan Jones, Herbig and Bryce Wehrli were the team's leading hitters.

Sparked by the win over Mission Valley, Glacier took a 5-0 lead over Kalispell AL in the district championship game later Sunday. But Kalispell got within two, then erupted for six runs in the sixth inning for a four-run lead.

"We kept the pitchers on longer than we probably should have," Houston said. "We had some tired arms from the previous games."

In the bottom of the seventh, Glacier scored two runs on hits by Dopps, Isaac Venezio and Taylor Martinson. But a ground out with runners on first and third ended the game.

Dopps has been struggling with an ankle injury he got at the beginning of the All-Star season, and has recently had elbow problems as well which has kept him off the pitching mound. However, Dopps is contributing in other ways. He made a big catch in the sixth inning up against the fence to get one runner out and hold another from scoring.

"He's probably our strongest center fielder," Houston said. "He hits the ball a lot for us and he is great to coach and have on the team."

Also representing Bigfork on the Glacier team is Brett Sward, who had a sacrifice and a single during the championship game.

"He's the new guy on the block and he's brought a lot of energy to the team," Houston said. "He makes the plays when he needs to and keeps everyone fired up in the dug out. I can put him in multiple positions so he's a good guy to have around."

Most of the players on the Glacier 15-year-old all-star squad were on the team that finished second at state as 13- and 14-year-olds. They were district champs as 13-year-olds.

"I think our team is up," said Houston of his team heading into the state tournament. "We're feeling good about ourselves. We know what we're capable of doing and I think we have a good chance of winning a state title."