Bravettes host Sentinel in playoff

Best-of-three-games winner advances to staate play in Missoula

It's time to get down and dirty for the Flathead High School softball team.

The Bravettes host Missoula Sentinel today at the Conrad Complex in a best-of-three-games Western AA playoff series starting at noon with games two and three, if necessary, starting at 2 and 4 p.m.

The winner goes to state, which starts next Thursday, in Missoula.

The losers hang up their cleats.

The Bravettes used a six-game winning streak heading into the final week of the regular season to post a 6-6 Western AA record, grab the division's No. 4 seed and a 9-10 overall record.

The Spartans finished the regular season as Western AA's No. 5 seed with a 5-7 record. They were 6-14 overall.

Flathead swept the Spartans in Western AA play this season with 2-0 and 5-4 victories. Sentinel won a non-conference game, 9-4, on April 7.

The teams' last meeting came on April 25. That's when Flathead senior second baseman Brittney Nelson threw out the Spartans' tying run at home plate in the bottom of the seventh inning to save the Bravettes' 5-4 Western AA victory.

The win ended up being the first of six straight.

Junior pitcher Brianna Compton (8-7) picked up the victory within the circle in both of those conference victories over Sentinel. In the first game, she pitched a four-hit, complete-game shutout. In the second one, she struck out 10 while allowing 10 hits.

Compton was also the only offense the Bravettes could muster in the first game, going 2-for-3 with an RBI, as Sentinel's senior pitcher Lyndsey Mendenhall allowed just two hits.

The Bravettes touched Sentinel pitcher Melissa Gray for seven hits in the 5-4 victory as senior outfielder Spencyr Schmaltz went 3-for-4 with an RBI and Liz Dwyer and Compton each added an RBI.

Gray is 1-7 in the circle for the Spartans. Mendenhall is 5-6. The Spartans also have a big lefty in sophomore Tiffany Seeberger, a first baseman, that may toe the rubber.

Flathead sophomore center fielder Heather Haegele is the team leader in hitting in the leadoff spot. She is batting around .314. Compton is hitting about .290 in the No. 2 spot in the batting order. Junior third baseman Christina Zorn is hitting about .300. Senior left fielder Liz Dwyer is hitting about .285 and Schmaltz follows her in the order.

"We match up pretty well (with Sentinel)," Flathead second-year coach Dale Beerman said. "But if we hit the ball … I don't know … We can compete with anybody. We lost to Big Sky just 4-2 without hitting the ball and committing seven errors, so …"

Sentinel's leadoff hitter is junior catcher Ellen Mittlestadt. Senior outfielder Sarah Miles hits No. 3 and left fielder Rachel Eisenmann leads the team from the cleanup spot.

The Bravettes swept Helena High last year in a Western AA playoff in Kalispell.