After a weekend that saw the Mavericks drop three of four on a Canadian road trip, they returned home to Lindborg-Cregg Field and posted a solid 11-7 victory that clinched Missoula a berth in the American Legion state tournament.
The Mavs used a six-run second inning, highlighted by a pair of solo home runs by Sean Dwyer and Taylor Nordby, to take control and keep alive their slim hopes of taking the West's top seed to state Aug. 2-6 in Great Falls. They moved to 15-6 in league play and into second in the standings after the Lethbridge Spitz Elks dropped both halves of a doubleheader with Kalispell on Tuesday. Lethbridge fell to 13-7 in conference action.
Dwyer paced Missoula's 17-hit attack, going 3-for-5 with a pair of RBIs. Ben Roberts, Sam Sopko, Drew Lytle, Taylor King and Nordby added two hits apiece in sending Great Falls starter Bryce Thompson to the loss. In four innings, Thompson allowed nine runs on 12 hits and no walks. Thompson struck out three.
The Stallions (17-5, 37-23) got a big-league effort from left fielder Tanner Bleskin, who homered twice, tripled and drove in six runs.
Though far from on top of his game, Missoula starting pitcher Cody Burgmeier toughed out his team-leading 11th win against three losses. In 8 1-3 innings of work, Burgmeier allowed nine hits and two walks while fanning nine. He left after Bleskin's two-run homer in the ninth.
“Cody definitely gave us a decent pitching performance,” Hathaway said. “That was gutsy all the way around and I don't think he made it two innings against these guys when we faced them over there. He pitched with a lot of heart tonight.”
After falling behind 1-0 on Thompson's sacrifice fly in the top of the first, the Mavs pounded out seven hits and sent 12 to the plate in their big second frame.
Missoula scored two more in the fourth on RBI singles by Roberts and Sopko. The Mavs scored two more in the seventh when Lytle's RBI double was followed by King's run-scoring single, giving the Missoula a comfortable 9-5 lead.
Matt McMann entered in relief of Burgmeier in the ninth and got Thompson to ground to second for the second out. Great Falls catcher Cole McPherson followed and appeared to keep the Stallion's two-run rally going by smacking 2-1 offering from McMann to the gap in left-center for an apparent triple. But McMann appealed to first, contesting that McPherson hadn't touched the bag on his way to second, and the first-base umpire agreed, ringing up McPherson for the final out of the game.
While the Mavs remained in the chase to defend their Western Conference title, Hathaway was more pleased by knowing his team had punched its ticket to state.
“We're glad we know we're going now,” he said. “We earned our way in. But we're only concerned with ourselves. We just want to go over there and play good baseball. We're definitely not a favorite, but we're OK with that.”
Notes: Nordby's home run was his seventh of the season, the most on the Mavericks ... Thompson entered with the Stallions' hottest bat, boasting a .429 average with 20 doubles, seven homers and 87 RBIs. He finished 0-2 ... The Stallions and Mavericks meet for their final regular season contest Wednesday afternoon at 3 p.m. Great Falls would clinch the league title with a victory.
Great Falls 101 030 003 - 7 9 2
Missoula 060 302 00x - 11 17 1
Bryce Thompson, Dustin Schultz (5) and Cole McPherson. Cody Burgmeier, Matt McMann (9) and Sean Dwyer. W - Burgmeier (11-3). L - Thompson.
GREAT FALLS - Zach Griffith 2-5, Dan Olinger 3-5, Tanner Bleskin 3-5, Thompson 0-2, McPherson 1-5, Taylor Ferradas 0-4, Jake Bleskin 0-3, Aaron Stucker 0-2, Schultz 0-2, Alex Walteri 0-3.
MISSOULA - Matt McMann 1-3, Ben Roberts 2-4, Brendan Brown 1-5, Cubby Pierre 0-0, Dwyer 3-4, Sam Sopko 2-5, Drew Lytle 2-4, Kendal Maier 2-5, Taylor King 2-4, Taylor Nordby 2-4.
2B - Smith, Lytle, Maier. 3B - T. Bleskin, King. HR - T. Bleskin 2 (8, 9), Dwyer (2), Nordby (7). RBIs - T. Bleskin 6, Thompson, Roberts, Dwyer 2, Sopko, Lytle, Maier, King 2, Nordby.
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