Softball team gets its third win of the season

Hungry Horse News

After a disappointing start to the weekend, the Columbia Falls softball team exploded on Saturday for 20 runs, dismantling Stevensville after dropping two hard games to Polson and Libby.

The win against Stevensville boosted the Wildkats' record to 3-9 and featured several outstanding offensive performances.

Senior Amanda Puryer went 4-5 at the plate with an RBI and four runs scored. Senior Kym Island, who picked up her third win of the season on the mound, went 2-4 with two doubles and five RBI.

Also contributing doubles to the onslaught were sophomore Jessica Lyman, who had two RBI, and senior Kalee Wolf, who racked up four RBI.

With a season high run total and a season low number of runs allowed, the game was easily the Kats' best performance of the year. The 20 runs topped their previous high run total by eight.

The entire weekend wasn't as kind to the Kats as they lost to Polson 11-1 on Thursday and top-ranked Libby 14-3 on Friday, collecting only four hits in the two games.

The offense sputtered badly against Polson, with freshman Brandy Rowe collecting the Kats' only hit and scoring the lone run. Sophomore Vanesha Riley knocked Rowe in for the only RBI.

Against Libby, the top-ranked team in the conference, the girls played marginally better, but still only managed three hits. Senior Lea Bukowski had two hits and an RBI and Island collected the Kats' only other hit.

With the season winding down, the Kats have four conference games remaining and could move up in the standings with an impressive run to close out the year.

They play Ronan on Thursday night, travel to the Butte Central Tournament on Friday and Saturday and play Libby again on Tuesday.

A game scheduled for Monday against St. Ignatius was cancelled.