Bulldog baseball picks up another win in Florence

Though two games were canceled last week due to weather and lingering snow on the fields, the Bulldogs went on a last-minute road trip to Florence where they earned their second win of the season. Whitefish defeated Florence 7-3 on Saturday afternoon.

“It was great to be able to play a game,” Whitefish head coach Kyler Blades said. “They were willing to host us there and their field looked great, it was in fantastic shape.”

Whitefish came out strong against the Falcons, scoring in the second, third and fourth innings to take a 6-0 lead heading into the fifth. In the bottom of the sixth, Whitefish’s Jake McIntyre gave up a home run as Florence scored two in the inning. However McIntyre, in the top of the seventh, hit his own home run — the first for Whitefish baseball.

“He actually gave up a home run and then subsequently when it was his turn to bat the next inning hit one right back, so that was pretty cool to see,” Blades recalled.

The Bulldogs had eight hits and one error in the game. Whitefish played five different pitchers throughout seven innings in an effort to get everybody ready for the season. Blades anticipates several games being played each week later on and therefore wants his players ready for any situation that arises.

“It’s been years since Ty Schwaiger had not been the starter of a game and we want to make sure he was prepared for that to happen because as our games continue to get pushed back, we’re going to have weeks where we play four, maybe even five, games in a week.

“So we need all hands on deck and everyone prepared to do that. It was good to see everyone be able to get up there, execute and throw strikes.”

Whitefish’s Jacob Polumbus led off on the mound throwing 20 strikes on 29 pitches, striking out four, over two innings. Ty Schwaiger, Logan Kunz, Clayton Godsey and McIntyre all pitched at least one inning.

Mack McLaughlin started the scoring in the second inning with a solid base hit to right field for his first RBI of the season. Blades says more highlights included Godsey hitting a double and Schwaiger having a two-out hit that scored a couple of runs for the team as well as him pitching great for one inning.

The Bulldogs are 2-0 so far this season and Blades likes how the team is looking.

“It’s cool to see these kids that are obviously friends, and some of them haven’t played baseball in a few years, come back and just integrate right back in and jell,” he said. “You can tell that everybody truly enjoys being around one another and I love being a part of that too.”

The games that were canceled last week were supposed to be played against Columbia Falls and Browning, both on the road. These games will be rescheduled for later in the season.

Whitefish is scheduled to host Butte Central on Thursday at Memorial Field in Whitefish starting at 4 p.m. The coaches and school were assessing the field early this week to determine if they can host this game. On Friday, Whitefish will play in Eureka and on Saturday they will play Troy.