The Corvallis Blue Devils picked up their first conference win on the diamond on Thursday against Stevensville. Corvallis held off a late game surge by the Lady Yellowjackets to win, 12-11.
“We lost a close one last week against Dillon, had a lead and gave it away, but we hung on this time,” said coach Brett Shelagowski.
Corvallis jumped out to a two-run lead in the first inning when freshman Corinne Sanderson hit a two-run homer. She went 3-for-4 at bat and batted in three runners in all. Corvallis built upon the lead in the third inning when they scored six more runs. By the end of five innings, the Blue Devils were up, 12-5.
“We’re building,” said Shelagowski. “We’re a young team. The girls are learning the game and they’re playing better.”
Stevensville’s bats got hot later in the game and they knocked in five runs in the top of the sixth inning. Coach Joey Wark was pleased that his team hit in 11 runs but disappointed in their offense.
“For us to be successful, we’ve known all year that we have to play good defense. We didn’t do that today,” said Wark. “Normally it’s one inning that we have a hard time coming out of and today it was three. We can’t come back from that.”
Five players from Stevensville hit doubles: Jenna Lockman, Carly Vercruyssen, Cammie Beller, Madison Boesch and Mariah Hinson who hit two. Vercruyssen took the loss for the ‘Jackets.
Taylor Gagnon was the winning pitcher and Brenna Bourgeois was the catcher. This was the first conference win for Bourgeois who is one of two seniors on the Corvallis team.
“It was so close, and so exciting,” said Bourgeois. “We’ve been close every time and everyone is working so hard. We really hit the ball this time. We’ll give them a run at Divisionals.”
Florence earned the top seed at the Western B/C Divisionals which will be held in two weeks in Ronan after sweeping Deer Lodge in their final conference games of the season. The Lady Falcons are undefeated in conference play with a record of 14-0. They will play in the Butte Central tournament this weekend.