State baseball: Florence-Carlton fights past Hamilton to win first championship (2024)

MISSOULA— Jake Roth launched his pitcher’s glove from the mound to the dugout, third baseman Chase Wagner hurled his glove straight up into the sky and the Florence baseball team jumped into a dogpile on the infield grass on Saturday night.

The Falcons had just captured their first high school baseball state championship with a 4-2 victory over Hamilton at Ogren-Allegiance Park. The only thing that could eventually threaten their celebration was the soon-to-be-starting sprinklers on the Pioneer League baseball field.

"Last year, we came up a little short," Florence head coach John Hinsdale said. "The boys were real hungry. This year, they had a goal and they worked hard. It’s amazing just to see it pay off. They never quit. They never quit working. Great bunch of kids. Couldn’t ask for anything more."

Florence is the first Class B team to win the state championship in the second season of baseball being an all-class sport in Montana. More Class AA teams are expected to be joining the sport come next year.

Two Class AA teams were playing this year. Florence beat them a total of three times, including knocking out East division champion Belgrade in the state semifinals.

"Don't underestimate the B schools," Roth said. "We beat two AA teams this year, eliminated one. It was fun."

Many of the players on the baseball team also were on the football squad.

"We just kept the culture alive," Wagner said. "It's kind of an expectation. Our teammates battle each other pretty hard. It keeps competition in the organization. It's really cool that we get to experience state championships as a B school."

Florence's run through the state tournament featured three different types of games. The Falcons built a big lead and held off Eureka's comeback bid to win 11-7 in the quarterfinals.

They defeated Belgrade, 8-0, in the semifinals behind junior Mason Arlington's no-hitter, which Hindale called "probably the best pitching performance I've ever seen." They then toughed out a low-scoring win over Hamilton.

"It means the world to me," Roth said. "We put in the work. We never had a day off all season. We were working every day. These boys deserve it. The energy was electric. It was a great atmosphere to be in."

The title tilt was an all-Bitterroot affair between towns separated by less than 30 minutes. It was also an all-Southwest division affair between regular-season champion Florence and runner-up Hamilton.

Three teams from the Southwest finished in the top four at state. Butte, the No. 3 seed from the division, lost to Columbia Falls in the third-place game.

"This season our conference was really tough," Hinsdale said. "We had three teams out of the last four that were left in the tournament. The competition just all year long just made our team tougher. Every game we couldn’t take a day off. We had that grind all the way through. I think it made us a better team towards the end."

The championship game served as the season-long rubber match between Florence and Hamilton. The teams split their two regular-season games, a 1-0 Hamilton road win on March 22 and a 6-5 Florence road win on April 11.

It was only fitting that the championship game would be another nail-biter. The Falcons built a 2-0 lead in the third inning, saw Hamilton tie it in the fourth but Florence fought back to go ahead in the fifth.

"I’m just blown away," Wagner said. "I’m so proud of my teammates and myself. We got a sophom*ore infield that last game. Really just impressed with how we worked through adversity when adversity struck. Teammates just kept up in the dugout. Everybody mattered that game."

Florence finished the season with an 18-1 record. The Falcons kept their focus to win 17 consecutive games to close their campaign.

"For the most part, they play pretty loose," Hinsdale said. "Our practices are pretty fun. They know they can win every game. Every school that we played, most of them have been tough games, but they work hard and they just get it done."

Florence's championship came in Hinsdale's first season as head coach. He had been an assistant last year for then-head coach Patrick Duchien Sr.

"Everything was basically the same as last year," Hinsdale said. "The kids stepped up this year. We lost some good players from last year, but we had other ones step up. We had four eighth graders on our roster going into this tournament. That tells you something about the future of Florence baseball."

Roth, one of just three seniors, played the role of shutdown pitcher who hadn't thrown much before this season.His specialty is catching, which is what he’s going to play at Blue Mountain Community College in Oregon.

He stepped up later in the season by taking on more of a pitching role and he came through on the biggest stage.The righty limited Hamilton to two runs on four hits and four walks while striking out eight over seven innings.

"I tried to stay calm," he said after losing a 2-0 lead. "Emotions got a little to me in the dugout, but we came back very well. Said sorry because those are my runs I gave up. Came back hot and I thank my boys for it."

Wagner was the sophom*ore who rose to the occasion in a major way at the plate. His RBI sacrifice fly in the fifth inning broke a 2-2 tie as he drove in older brother Drew Wagner.

He came to bat again in another pressure-packed situation after Hamilton intentionally walked Mason Arlington with two outs in the sixth inning. Wagner smacked an RBI single for an insurance run and a 4-2 lead after a dropped foul ball gave him new life.

"I thought to myself, 'Man, they doubted me. It's my time to shine,'" he said.

Wagner had both of Florence's RBIs. The Falcons' other two runs came on fielding errors by Hamilton in the third inning.

The Broncs erased their 2-0 deficit in the fourth inning on Atticus Southwell's two-out RBI single and Andrew Ricklefs' bases-loaded walk. However, they left the bases packed that inning and stranded eight runners in the game.

"For a few of our guys, they hadn't been here before and the moment was a little big and it showed," Hamilton head coach Jason Goligoski said. "We made some mistakes that we don't normally do.

"That’s not to take anything away from Florence. I tip my hat to them. But you can see where those three football titles in a row paid off. They've been there. The moment wasn't too big. They embrace it. They took it."

Hamilton finished the season 16-4 and put together a 12-game winning streak before the loss in the finale. The Broncs' four defeats came by a total of six runs, and none of those losses were by more than two tallies.

They'll graduate five seniors from this year's team and will return a young nucleus that includes sophom*ores Cash Lawrence and Jackson Lubke who both started on the mound at state. Lubke held Florence to four runs (two earned) on seven hits and three walks over five innings.

"It's a growing, learning process," Goligoski said. "We're still really, really young. The foundation is built in Hamilton to have a quality baseball team. I expect us to be here the next three, four, five years.

"The bright spot is last year we placed fourth, this year we’re second. We got one more spot to get and I think with this group that's where our goals will be."

Columbia Falls 16, Butte 2, third-place game

After finishing the regular season with a bang in winning a Northwest Conference title, Columbia Falls finished off its first trip to the state baseball tournament with fireworks Saturday night.

It wasn't the state championship the Wildcats were hoping for at the start of the week, but it was an impressive performance at blustery Ogren-Allegiance Park in the third-place game. They raced to a five-run lead in the first three innings and finished off Butte in five by virtue of the 10-run rule, 16-2.

Columbia Falls was awarded its first state baseball trophy afterwards.

The Wildcats (18-3) advanced to the third-place game by outlasting Belgrade, 10-9, in extra innings in a loser-out game on Saturday morning. The Bulldogs (12-8) moved on to the trophy round by racing past Eureka, 11-6.

Wildcats coach Chad Green got a little emotional after his team's season-ending win.

"You know, they had adversity last year— we lose our head coach Billy Sapa, and the boys made it their goal to get here this year and get a trophy," Green said. "This one was for Billy. And then we also had a player last year, Josiah Kilman, who was murdered down in college this year. This one is for them."

Green went with Billy Sapa's son, junior Reggie Sapa, as his starting pitcher. He pitched two scoreless frames before being forced to leave due to pitch count guidelines. Reggie ended up with the win, with help from relievers Nico Young and Dawson Juntunen.

"Reggie is dealing with the adversity the most, losing his dad during baseball season," Green said of 2023. "I'm super proud of Reggie and all the boys."

Take away that one rough inning against Hamilton in Thursday's quarterfinal round and Columbia Falls might have been playing for a title Saturday night.

"That's baseball," Sapa said with a smile. "But this was pretty awesome, and we're looking to come back and maybe get first place next year.

"Pitching gets a little tighter when you have to play four games instead of three, being in the consolation bracket. But pitching was one of our strengths — we've got a lot of guys that can throw strikes — and we've got good defense."

Good defense, indeed. Senior center fielder Kellen Kroger made two rally-killing shoestring catches and senior Cody Schweikert made a diving highlight-reel catch at first base that stymied another Butte rally.

"We were definitely really tired after last game, going (extra innings) with Belgrade, and we just came out and basically said hey, this is our last time we get to play, might as well dive for everything," said Schweikert, a University of Montana football recruit who played quarterback for the Wildcats.

"Usually on first base you don't get much action because a majority of the batters are righties. So luckily these guys have a lefty who pulled one hard and I just, I don't know, I didn't even think I was going to catch it. I basically closed my eyes and dove."

The Wildcats piled up 14 hits to nine for Butte, who hurt itself with five errors. Columbia Falls freshman Jett Pitts was most impressive of all, going 4 for 4 with five RBIs. Sapa had two hits, including a triple, and two RBIs. Kroger and AC Chilson also had two hits apiece.

Sophom*ore Logan Carden had a big game for Butte. He had three hits, including a double, and drove in a run. Senior teammate Alex Jorgensen had a pair of singles.

Columbia Falls 10, Belgrade 9, loser-out

Columbia Falls' Dayne Tu delivered a walk-off single to center field that scored AC Chilson from second base with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning in a loser-out game on Saturday morning.

Chilson had tied the game at 9-9 when he drove in Cody Schweikert with a one-out double to right field. Schweikert, a Montana Grizzlies football signee, had started the inning with a walkagainst relief pitcher Gage Banks.

That marked the third consecutive inning the Wildcats had erased a deficit after leading 5-1 through three frames. They scored one run on an error in the sixth to tie it 6-6, two in the seventh on sacrifice flies by Reggie Sapa and Kellen Kroger to knot it 8-8 and two in the eighth to win the game.

Belgrade had gone ahead 9-8 in the top of the eighth when Landon Wanders drew a one-out walk, advanced on an error, reached third on a wild pitch and scored on Sawyer Olson's sacrifice bunt against reliever Kroger.

Columbia Falls finished with 13 hits to Belgrade's 10. The Panthers committed four errors to the Wildcats' three, leading to six unearned runs.

Belgrade (15-5) finished 1-2 at the tournament after placing third last year.

Butte 11, Eureka 6, loser-out

Butte scored three runs in three separate innings to win going away in a loser-out game on Saturday morning.

Logan Carden helped pace the Bulldogs by going 2 for 4 with four RBIs and one run scored. Cayde Stajcar was 3 for 3 with a home run, one RBI and four runs scored.

Quinn Cox and Matthew Donaldson both drove in two runs for Butte and Tocher Lee scored twice. The Bulldogs put up seven runs against starter Tristan Butts and finished with nine hits and nine walks.

Stajcar got the win on the mound, throwing four innings of no-hit ball. He allowed one run while walking seven and striking out eight. Eureka totaled four hits, 13 walks and left the bases loaded in the seventh.

Eureka (16-5-1) finished 1-2 at the state tournament.