Hawk softball battles at state

The Blue Hawk softball season came to a close at the state tournament in Laurel last weekend, and it was a wicked ride for all the competitors.

A spring storm disrupted the tournament, which was supposed to start on Thursday. Games were delayed on Thursday, then pushed to Friday as fields were dried out to allow teams to play. The Hawks were scheduled to play Shepherd on Thursday in a repeat of the opening round game from 2023. The 4 p.m. game was delayed until 6 p.m. before being postponed to Friday morning. The Hawks, who dominated the Fillies last year, fell 0-10 to Shepherd.

Thompson Falls didn’t have much time to rest as they then faced Glasgow in the consolation bracket. The Hawks showed why they were state tournament worthy as they defeated the Scotties 8-5.

“It was a slow start to this game, but the girls prevailed and showed their warrior mentality to take this win.” Coach Jared Koskela said.

Fresh off the win, the Hawks went back to the field for their third game on Friday, meeting the Conrad-Choteau CowDawgs. Though the Hawks would fall 6-17, Coach Jared Koskela was happy with his team’s sixth-place finish. Thompson Falls had defeated Conrad earlier in the season at Cut Bank.

Shepherd would go on to finish second at the state tournament with the Manhattan Tigers being crowned the champions. Saturday was a long day for both teams. Shepherd defeated Florence 9-2 to secure a spot in the championship as Manhattan played four in a row. The Tigers first defeated Conrad-Choteau 13-2 in a loser out match before beating Florence 8-6. That set up the championship game between Shepherd and Manhattan. The Tigers won 11-8 and due to the double-elimination format, forced a challenge game between the two teams. Manhattan was able to again dominate Shepherd and win the final game of the tournament 6-1.

“The girls had a goal to make it to state again this year and once we were there they had another goal taking home some hardware but that didn’t happen. Overall I am so proud of these girls. They stepped up when the time was needed and they fought until the end.” Koskela stated.

With the season’s end, five Blue Hawk softball players were honored as all-conference selections. Juniors Olivia Fitchett and Sarah Koskela were both named first team all-conference, as well as receiving all-state honors. Senior Olivia Harnett and sophomore Gabi Hannum were named to the second team all-conference list, and freshman Addie Traver received honorable mention all-conference honors.

“Two years ago we had just one all-conference, then last year we had three and this year we have five. It just shows those girls who are stepping up, it doesn’t take just one of them, it takes us all to be a team. Very proud of these girls and the team.” said Koskela.