Bulldog baseball notches another win over Corvallis

Led by a grand slam from senior Jake McIntyre, the Whitefish Bulldogs recorded an 11-0 win over Corvallis on Thursday evening at Memorial Field.

Whitefish led the Blue Devils 1-0 until McIntyre’s big hit ran up the score in the bottom of the third inning. The homer sent Brady Howke, Mack McLaughlin and Maddox Muller home to go up 5-0.

“Jake McIntyre hit the first grand slam in program history,” Whitefish head coach Kyler Blades said. “That was awesome, it was just a no-doubter over the left-center wall; it was crushed over the deepest part of the park.”

In the same inning, Corvallis struggled with pitching woes and Ty Schwaiger scored on a walk and Michael Miller scored after Jacob Polumbus was hit by a pitch. Whitefish scored three more runs in the fourth inning and due to the run rule, the game ended after Corvallis failed to score in the top of the fifth.

Whitefish had eight hits in the game and no errors. Josiah Ruther had two hits in three at-bats including one RBI when he singled to left field in the fourth sending McIntyre home.

Polumbus was on the mound for the Bulldogs and stayed perfect through four innings. In the fifth, he gave up just one hit, a swinging bunt, and a walk. Logan Kunz pitched to close out the game in the fifth. According to Blades, Kunz is getting back into baseball after taking a couple years off and is a great asset to the team.

“Logan Kunz came in and closed the door for us, and did a nice job pitching,” Blades recalled. “He’s been an awesome addition for us this year.”

The Bulldogs are 5-1 now with their only loss being Butte, predicted to be a top Class A program, a couple weeks ago. Several games have been canceled and have to be rescheduled, but the baseball season is about at the midway point — the state tournament is less than a month away.

Blades says his team still has only gotten a few full outdoor practices this season, which has possibly affected their success. But even dealing with the weather and a cold, wet April, he says that just means the best is yet to come.

“We just know that because of our lack of field time, we may peak later than everybody,” Blades said. “I still think our best baseball might be ahead of us.”

Though looking to improve more, Whitefish still has only given up one hit over the last three games. Blades says he hopes his team’s hitting will increase in the coming weeks.

“Our bats are what needs to heat up and we’ll get to that point,” he said.

Whitefish was also supposed to play Hamilton last week but the game was canceled due to weather.

The Bulldogs were set to take on Browning in a doubleheader on Tuesday after press time. Then they host one of the biggest games of the year, the Columbia Falls Wildcats on Friday at 6 p.m. Last week the Wildcat head baseball coach Bill Sapa suddenly passed away. Blades says Sapa was one of his coaches growing up and the news hits hard.

“He would have wanted the boys to keep playing and that’s what we’re going to do — have fun with good competition against Columbia Falls on Friday,” Blades added.

Whitefish will finish the week with a nonconference game against Polson on Saturday in Polson.