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Glacier Softball Beats Flathead, Wins Conference Title

Wolfpack has won 11 in a row, has not lost since April 18

By Andy Viano
Glacier head coach Abby Connolly talks to her team before the crosstown softball game on April 16, 2019. Greg Lindstrom | Flathead Beacon

Sage Vanterpool struck out nine in five innings and freshman Sammie Labrum had two hits and scored three runs to lead the Glacier Wolfpack to a 13-3 win against crosstown rival Flathead on May 9 at Glacier High School. The win was Glacier’s 11th in a row and clinched the Western AA conference title for the Wolfpack.

Glacier (16-3, 10-2 Western AA) has not lost since April 18 and swept through the second half of the league schedule, avenging earlier losses to Missoula Sentinel and Helena High. The Wolfpack will be the top seed at the Western AA Divisional tournament, May 16-17 in Missoula. The top four finishers at the double-elimination divisional tournament will advance to state, May 23-25 in Butte.

On Thursday, the Bravettes (2-17, 2-10) put a run on the board in the top of the first inning before Glacier scored the next nine runs to break the game open. The Wolfpack tallied four times in the bottom of the fifth inning to complete the victory by mercy rule.

Glacier had just eight hits but drew 11 walks as a team against Flathead, with nine different batters earning at least one free pass. Labrum was the only member of the Pack with more than one hit. Kynzie Mohl drove in two runs.

The young Wolfpack team does not include a single senior and has relied for much of the year on a dominant offense that is averaging 12.6 runs per game (11.8 in conference play). Glacier batters are hitting .371 and reaching base more than 49 percent of the time as a team. Four regular starters — Labrum (.472), Mohl (.426), Vanterpool (.418) and Allie Meyer (.403) — are all batting better than .400 this year.