American Legion Baseball Red Sox blank Lakers in West District A title game

The Daily Inter Lake

The top-seeded Bitterroot Red Sox defended their West District A Tournament American Legion baseball title Sunday night by blanking the upstart Kalispell Lakers 3-0 in the championship game at Memorial Field.

It was the first tournament loss for Kalispell, which was the sixth seed.

The Red Sox advanced to the final by stopping the Bitterroot Bucs in a loser-out contest earlier in the day 10-0.

Normally a second-championship game would be played today in this double-elimination tournament, but coaches for both teams let Sunday’s score stand as the final. The reason had to deal with league rules regarding pitcher count. If a pitcher played in the second championship game today, he might be ineligible to compete when state tournament action begins Thursday in Three Forks.

So that means the Red Sox will advance to state as the No. 1 seed from the West.

The Lakers are the No. 2 seed.

“We feel like our conference is the toughest in the state,” Lakers coach Jesse McFarland said.

“We feel like we can make some noise when we get over there, too.”

There was no miracle comeback in the Lakers this time. Kalispell had rallied for wins over the Missoula Mavs 9-6, Glacier Twins 5-4 and Bucs 13-12 to advance to the title contest.

“It’s been a pretty emotional few days,” McFarland admitted.

“There might have been a little bit of a letdown, too (for this game).”

This matchup was much closer than the last, when the Red Sox beat the Lakers during the regular season by the 10-run rule.

This marked the first time Kalispell advanced to the District championship game.

The Lakers did compete in state two years ago as the host tournament team.

A boxscore from the championship game was not available by press time.