Bigfork Babe Ruth's win streak snapped in Whitefish

Bigfork's Babe Ruth team broke its nine game winning streak last week, but they still hold the top spot in their division of the Glacier League with their 10-2 record.

Friday's game against First Interstate in Whitefish brought Bigfork their first loss, 4-2, since the first game of the season.

"Our pitching was very good, but what cost us the game was the errors that we made in the field," said Bigfork Babe Ruth Head Coach James LaFontaine. "All four of their runs were unearned."

Kyle Parker, Luke LaFontaine and Mitchel Harsh combined to cover the pitching duties and allowed five hits and struck out two of their opponents.

"We had seven hits to their five so we out hit them," coach LaFontaine said. "They just didn't make the errors like we did."

Harsh went two-for-four at the plate and Brett Sward was two-for-three, and both boys had one run.

"A couple of times we left guys on third base," coach LaFontaine said. "We didn't knock them in like we usually do."

Bigfork turned things around on Saturday, though, and defeated Whitefish's Sports Medicine team 17-7 in six innings, since the game was called early for the mercy rule.

"I was really impressed that after struggling on Friday that they came back and played as well as they did on Saturday and won," coach LaFontaine said.

Luke LaFontaine pitched the first four innings and allowed two hits, four walks, one earned run and struck out six batters. He was then pulled due to a limitation on the number of innings players are allowed to pitch in a 24-hour period. His replacement, Harsh, gave up two hits, one walk and three earned runs and was replaced by Parker before a full inning was up.

"Mitchel just wasn't feeling it," coach LaFontaine said. "He was having an off game."

Parker finished up the game for Bigfork and gave up just one hit and one run and struck out one batter.

"He went in and shut them down for us," coach LaFontaine said of Parker. "In the sixth inning he went out and put them away; one, two, three."

Parker was also a leader for Bigfork in the batter's box. He was four-for-four, was walked once and scored four of the team's runs. Sward also scored four runs having gone three-for-three and being walked once. Curtis Jochen was three-for-four at the plate and had two runs and five RBIs.

Last Wednesday they beat Blue Moon of Columbia Falls 10-4. Harsh, Dopps and Parker all pitched for Bigfork and together allowed four runs and struck out six batters. Connor Coleman hit two-for-four with a double and a triple and made it home both times. Sward was also two-for-four and had three RBIs.

Tuesday Bigfork took on McKinzie River for their last regular season home game. The results will be in next week's paper.

Bigfork's last game of the season will be a rematch with Montana Build from their first game, and loss, of the season. It will also likely determine the overall leader of regular season play in the Glacier League. Though Bigfork leads the National Division, Montana Build leads the American Division with a 9-2 record.

"The first time we played them we pitched well and we played well," coach LaFontaine said. "We just didn't hit very well against them. It was the first game of the season, though. So it should be a pretty good match up."

Saturday

Bigfork—7-2-0-3-3-2—17

Sports Medicine—1-0-1-0-5-0—7

Friday

First Interstate—2-0-2-0-0-0-0—4

Bigfork—0-0-0-0-1-1-0—2

Wednesday

Bigfork—3-1-2-0-2-2-0—10

Blue Moon—3-0-0-0-1-0-0—4