The Montesano girls had a busy schedule last week taking on Lakeside-Nine Mile Falls, Holy Names Academy and Hoquiam. The girls counted wins for each of the games.
Montesano took on Castle Rock in another non-league home game on the Rottle Field turf on April 4. The results of that match were not available when The Vidette went to press.
April 3
Bulldogs 9, Eagles 0
MONTESANO — It took a little while, but Montesano finally produced its one big inning to support its defense and pitching against Lakeside-Nine Mile Falls on April 3.
Playing on the Rottle Field turf, the Bulldogs found their bats in a five-run fifth inning to take away the drama of this non-league contest with the Eagles with a 9-0 victory.
Peyton Poler went 4-for-4, with three RBI, at the plate for Montesano (4-1 overall). Samantha Stanfield threw five shutout innings, striking out seven and walking one, for the victory in the circle.
“Right off the bat, Peyton had their pitcher’s number; she had a fantastic game,” Montesano head coach Pat Pace said. “When the rest of the team can feed off that, they will be joining her. Our defense is solid, but our bats have to improve. Instead of hitting sporadically, we have to put the hits together; and, put them together earlier. We have to make our adjustments in the on-deck circle.”
While Lakeside pitcher Shelby Cleassen (game-high 13 strikeouts) made Montesano work in the first four innings at the plate, the Bulldogs were comfortable with Stanfield throwing. The Eagles scattered three hits and had just one runner at second base in the first five innings.
With relief pitcher Annie Cristelli pitching, Lakeside got a runner to third base, but never threatened to score.
“Annie pitched really well for us against Holy Names (on Saturday); pitching-wise, we’re solid,” Pace added.
That left Montesano plenty of time to adjust to Cleassen and benefited in the fifth inning. The Bulldogs sent nine runners to the plate and slugged five hits, beginning with Abi Parkin’s one-out single.
Poler followed Parkin with an RBI double to the left-center field fence and moved to third on Josie Toyra’s single and alert baserunning to second on the throw to third. Following a strikeout, Monte struck.
On a full-court and runners going, Lexi Lovell’s bloop infield single turned into a two-run single for a 6-0 lead. One at-bat later, Lovell cruised home when Allysa Gustafson slugged a 1-1 pitch from Cleassen for a two-run home run to left field.
Monte finished the scoring with an RBI single from Jaden Schoch in the seventh. Poler started her day with an RBI double in the first inning and added an RBI single in the third. Toyra followed Poler with an RBI double in the third for a 3-0 lead.
April 1
Bulldogs 12, Cougars 6
A big inning early and late helped Montesano defeat Holy Names Academy in a non-league game on Saturday.
The Bulldogs (3-1) took advantage of errors by the Cougars to score four runs in the first inning, but it was Montesano’s bats that came alive to tack on six runs in the sixth inning.
“We started out pretty flat,” said. “It wasn’t until the sixth inning that our bats woke up. We have to do a better job of coming to play in the first inning and jumping on the team right away.”
Pace cited the offensive performances of Abi Parkin, Katie Granstrom, Peyton Poler and Samantha Stanfield.
March 30
Bulldogs 6, Grizzlies 5
Montesano built just enough of a lead to weather a Hoquiam comeback and defeat the Grizzlies, 6-5, in an Evergreen 1A League game at Jack Rottle Field on March 30.
The Bulldogs (1-0, 2-1) were able to plate their first batter of the game, but it was a four-run fourth inning that gave them just enough offense to top Hoquiam.
“We played a little small ball and came up with a couple huge hits,” Pace said. “I thought Sam (Stanfield) threw five great innings. She kept their batters off balance and blew it past a couple of them and in the last two innings, she slowed down and they hit the ball hard on her. In the sixth, we made a few errors, but Sam just put the ball down the middle too much and they couldn’t lay off it.”
Montesano’s big inning came in the fourth, scoring four runs on five hits. The rally looked to be over when Katie Granstrom grounded a ball to third base, but the sophomore hustled to beat the throw to first and Lovell was able to score from third. Granstrom scored two pitches later when Hannah Quinn connected on her second double of the game.
Monte would add one more run when Stanfield singled to score Quinn, while Lindsay Pace capped the Bulldogs scoring on a single to score Stanfield.
Pat Pace cited Stanfield for her work in the circle and at the plate as well as the hitting performances of Quinn, Poler and Lindsay Pace.
