Orange and Black Attack fight back at ASA championship
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BUTTE — The Ronan Orange and Black Attack rallied back from an opening loss to make a name for themselves at the 2010 Montana ASA State Championship in Butte this weekend.
Absent from last year’s state tournament, the 12U team wanted to make it clear that Ronan was a softball town by winning three games Saturday and just missing out on making it to the final day of the tournament by a single run.
The Attack recovered from an opening 9-5 loss to the Bitterroot Sparks by beating the Great Falls Select Gold, a team that Ronan coach Allen Smith said expected to just walk through the Attack to the next round, 6-5, early Saturday morning. In their only easy game of the tournament the Attack waltzed past the Electric City Heat 21-1 to set up a game against the Bozeman Steelers. The Attack closed down a couple of Steeler late-inning rallies to hold on for a 7-6 victory. In their final game of the day, the breaks went to the Havre Havoc and Ronan exited the tournament with a 2-1 loss, but not before making both their coaches proud.
Ronan manager Arnold Colman said his team always had the physical talent to play the game, but he wasn’t sure about the mental part. He said by the way his team responded to the opening loss and playing close game after close game Saturday, the young girls proved they were up to the challenge.
“They didn’t give up one bit. They didn’t give up an inch. They played like a championship-caliber team,” Colman said. “They came a long way. It was just a privilege to coach them. They are just an awesome set of girls.”
“I’m exceedingly proud of them ... The games were anybody games. Anybody could’ve won them at any moment and they buckled down and did their best,” Smith said.
After winning an intense one-run game, the Attack had to turn around and get right back on the field. Smith said by the final game against the Havoc, “the juice was going out on them,” but they still did their best and had a chance to win.
In a back-and-forth game against the Select to start Saturday, the Attack took a 6-4 lead in the third inning after RBI singles by first baseman Kania Smith and Brooke Doty. The two-run lead was enough for pitcher Samantha Colman. Colman struck out eight to get the win.
Karsten Rhine took the mound against the Electric City Heat and didn’t give up a hit and struck out five in the three-inning game. Right fielder Amanda Morency had three singles. Smith had a triple and Colman had an inside-the-park home run.
The Attack fell behind by three runs against the Steelers, before deciding to play ball in the third inning, Smith said.
The Attack scored six runs in the third and held on for a 7-6 win. Smith had a two-run double and Rhine and Doty had RBI singles in the six-run inning.
After the Steelers cut into the lead, Rhine struck out the side in the fifth for three of her six Ks in the game and Smith said the defense did the rest in the sixth and the seventh.
The Attack took a 1-0 lead against the Havoc in the bottom of the fourth, when Smith drove in Morgan Malatare with a single.
The Havoc scored both of their runs with two outs in the top of the fifth after a Ronan error.
Colman led off the sixth with a single, but was left on base and Morency reached in the seventh, but couldn’t score the tying run.
