State Championship up for grabs

[IntuitiveGriz]

From ButteSports.com:

The Butte Senior (14-16) All-Star softball team is halfway to a state championship.

With six players posting a multi-hit game, the Butte girls beat a team of players from Billings and Laurel players 24-1 at the Longfellow Complex Friday night.

Game 2 of the best-of-three series is set for 10 a.m. Saturday. A third game, if necessary, would follow. The winner advances to the Western Regional, which is next week in Missoula.

Butte is looking for its third straight trip to the World Series in Delaware.

Megan Michelotti smacked three singles and a double for the Butte team.

Bobbie Osterman and Justyce Connole each hit a triple and a single. Ashten McCloskey and Maria Michelotti each hit a double and a single, while Haley Henderson hit three singles and scored four runs.

Kassidy Criscuolo, Ashton LaFond, Morgan Bagley and Jenna Maroney also smacked hits in the win.

Osterman, Mikayla Boggs and Connole pitched for Butte.

 

[IntuitiveGriz]

Butte defeated Billings/Laurel in game two, via the ten run rule, 16-6 to win the state championship.

The two-time defending Western Regional champions from Butte, America will be defending their regiobnal titles this week in Missoula. The tournament kicks off this Thursday and runs through Tuesday.

 

[cclarkblues]

Congratulations to Butte. I hope the sports of the team coverage is better over there than here in Billings.

 

[IntuitiveGriz]

Congratulations to Butte. I hope the sports of the team coverage is better over there than here in Billings.

Thank you cclarkblues, that's very nice of you to say. The Billings/Laurel team had a couple really outstanding players...one pitcher that made a fantastic diving catch from the mound, and another pitcher that was a dangerous hitter. Both pitched well too. The two teams got a long pretty well I thought, I know the Butte team took the Billings/Laurel team out to a pizza fun-center (the RedZone) after game 1. I thought the Billings/Laurel team represented themselves very well, including their coaches.

I have a niece on the Butte team. The tv sports news coverage of the team has been hit and miss this year, being that our news (Butte) comes out of bozo (which says it covers southwest montana but it's heavily bozo laced/slanted) and Missoula (which does a better job covering Butte). We don't broadcast out of the mining city anymore.

If anyone in Missoula is looking for something to do, they should check out the tournament. Missoula fields a team as well since they are the host city. Last year's games were highly competitive.

 

[IntuitiveGriz]

Update on our Montana representative, as tournament pool play has come to an end, and the tournament begins on Tuesday:

Butte beat Northern California (Antioch)
Butte lost to Arizona (Sunny Side)
Butte beat Southern California (Victorville)
Butte beat Oregon (Klamath Falls)
Butte beat Zootown (Missoula)

*Washington did not compete this year

Single loss tourney (at the Clawson complex near MSLA Sentinal) on Tue looks like this...

#1 Butte vs #4 Arizona
#2 SoCal vs # #3 Zootown

Oregon and NorCal does not make the 4 team tourney.

Huge props to the NorCal girls! They cheered Butte on throughout the tourney. One of their moms came over and said as she walked by our bleachers, "Our girls love your girls."

And a big thanks to the Zootown team, who after a thrilling Sunday night game with Butte (where Zootown tied it in the top of the 7th, but Butte scored in the bottom of the 7th to win) invited the Butte team out for ice cream! Very classy move. You gotta love LITTLE LEAGUE!

 

[IntuitiveGriz]

What a Regional Tournament (West)!

Butte fell in the semi-finals to the Arizona champions from Tucson, 5-3. Arizona had a 3-run homer that proved to be the difference. Well that and Butte stranding a lot of runners on base, including bases loaded. A regional three-peat wasn't in the cards for the girls from the mining city.

Zootown fell in the other semi-final matchup to the SoCal champions from Victorville, 12-10. It was a thrilling game. Zootown batted in the top of the 7th (last inning) and was down 7-10. They tied it at 10-10! SoCal came to bat, got a runner on 1st base, and then the next batter hit a walk-off homerun to win the game 10-12. What was cool was one of the Socal fans, a female, yelled right before the pitch to the home-run batter "Come on so and so, you're due!". I'd say so...wow.

SoCal defeated Arizona in the Championship by the score of 10-5. And advances to the Little League World Series in Deleware. I wish them well, there fans were pretty cool. Very supportive of their team.

 

[IntuitiveGriz]

I'd say the future of Griz softball looks pretty good with all of the talent in Montana.

I'd even go as far as say to say that their is better girls softball players in MT than girls basketball. Move over Lady Griz.