Hawks fall to Eureka, MAC

It is a simple matter of confidence.

The Thompson Falls Lady Hawks dropped a pair of doubleheaders last week, falling 12-2 and 21-3 to Eureka in Eureka Saturday, and losing 14-3 and 12-0 to Mission-Arlee-Charlo in Mission Monday.

Looking to build up some confidence, coach Jared Koskela and his Hawks will finally play at home Thursday, hosting Deer Lodge for a doubleheader. It is only two weeks into the season and the Lady Hawks have already seen some of the best teams in the Western B-C division, and have taken their lumps from those top-flight teams.

The games with Deer Lodge are set to begin at 4 p.m. Thursday.

“It’s kind of nice that we have already played some of the best teams in the division,” Koskela said. “Maybe we can gain some traction against some of the other teams in the next few weeks and start playing better.”

Koskela says the Lady Hawks’ current woes are largely a result of a lack of confidence. “Our main issue right now is confidence,” he said. “We have been struggling at the plate and then getting frustrated. We are still very young and revert to bad habits under pressure.

“We have been facing some dominant pitchers, which doesn’t help,” he added, “but we just need to hang tough, keep playing hard and stick to it. We want to build up some confidence and can’t worry about it when things don’t go our way, we just gotta keep playing hard and work our way through it.”

The Hawks hung tough with one of those dominant pitchers Saturday in Eureka facing Avory Escobar, and trailed only 3-1 into the bottom of the fifth inning. The Lady Lions then broke through with four runs in their half of the fifth and five more in the sixth to end the game.

Faith Frields had two hits in the game, Kelsey Frank and Jody Detlaff one each, and Belle Cooper drove in a run for the Lady Hawks. Escobar picked up the pitching win and Katie Schmidt drove in three runs for Eureka.

In the second game at Eureka, Frank smacked out two hits and Detlaff, Cooper, Frields, Riley Wilson and Abbigayle Lane one apiece, with Wilson’s hit being a double. Detlaff, Wilson and Cooper knocked in the three Lady Hawk runs in the game.

Statistics from the Mission-Arlee-Charlo doubleheader were not available.