Lady 'Dogs win a close one

SAM KAUFMAN

for the Pilot

After outscoring opponents 47-2 the first three games, Whitefish High's softball team perhaps felt uncomfortable during the latter innings of Tuesday," Northwestern A battle against Ronan.

That's because the Bulldogs couldn't muster much more than a one-run lead after the fourth inning.

So how did Whitefish fare during a close one?

Just fine.

The Bulldogs scored the winning run on Amanda Joy's sacrifice fly in the bottom of the sixth and Makayla Peck fended off Ronan's rally in the seventh for a 4-3 win.

The Bulldogs improved to 4-0 with the victory.

And although the Bulldogs didn't have any breathing room like they did their first three games, first-year coach Aaron Phillips was happy to see his team come out on top of a nail-biter.

"That was a little too close for the way we have been playing," Phillips said of the one-run win over Ronan.

"We came out a little flat and we didn't do some of the little things. We didn't play as well defensively as we have been and we didn't hit the ball as well. But we did battle hard."

Whitefish's five errors helped pave the way for some of Ronan's runs.

The Bulldogs scored three times in the third to grab the lead for good. But the Maidens touched Peck for a run in the fourth to pull within a run and always seemed to be near striking distance.

Whitefish scored what proved to be the game-winning run in the bottom of the sixth when Joy lofted a deep fly to right that brought home Peck, who had earlier tripled to the gap in left center. Phillips praised Joy's final at-bat.

The Whitefish coach said Joy was looking for a pitch she could hit in the air.

There wasn't even a play at the plate because Amanda hit the ball deep enough to right field," Phillips said. " In that situation with a runner at third and nobody out, we wanted a line drive or fly ball deep enough to score the runner from third and Amanda came through.

Things got a little interesting in the seventh when Ronan scored and had the tying run in scoring position. However, Peck recorded the final out on a ground-out and the Bulldogs slipped away with another win.

"Maykala went the distance as our pitcher," Phillips said of Peck picking up the pitching win.

"She had some minor control problems early, but our big nemesis were the five errors. They kind of came back to haunt us."

Whitefish also didn't pound the ball at the resounding clip it had the past three games. Still, the Bulldogs rapped six hits and scored when they had to. Lead-off hitter Alana Morris did much of the offensive damage fro Whitefish.

Morris belted an RBI triple to key the Bulldogs' three-run third inning and went 2 for 4 at the plate.

Peck also helped her own cause by going 2 for 3 with a triple and a single.

Kalani Morris and Sara Vail both knocked home runs for the Bulldogs, while Brandy Clark and Desiree Clarke went 1 for 2 and 1 for 1 respectively. Peck limited Ronan to five hits in notching the pitching win.

The Bulldogs will have a busy Friday with three games at the Frenchtown Invitational.