MISSOULA — Alise Steinmetz walked up to the plate in the bottom of the first inning with the bases loaded and one out.
Her bat connected with the ball and sent it well over the center field wall for a ground slam to put Billings West on top of Great Falls CMR 4-0 in the Class AA state softball championship game at Grizzly Softball Field on the University of Montana campus. The Golden Bears never looked back in a 10-0 win.
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West junior pitcher Tatum Bush had eight strikeouts on 21 batters faced.
When Bush was at the plate in the bottom of the fifth, her team was up 9-0, needing just one run to seal the championship. Bush had homered earlier in the state tournament, but the 10th and final run came from her teammate, Madelyn Murphy, who capitalized on a wild pitch and ran home.
The win marked Billings West's first state title since 2014.
After the game, Bush shared how proud she is of her team and the hard work that led the Bears to this win.
"Shoutout to Alise Steinmetz," Bush added. "That was a heck of a hit. It was great, it brought the energy (and) it changed the momentum, (setting) the tone for the rest of the game."
Steinmetz said she was just hoping to get a base hit.
"I wanted to score a run for our team and just get us on the board," Steinmetz said. "Once I hit the ball off my bat I knew that it was going over, and I was just so happy and so proud to do it for my team."
The team has big plans to celebrate the win, including holding their coach to a promise.
"We're going to party it up, we'll have the music blasting," Steinmetz said. "We're stopping at Dairy Queen. Coach promised we could get Dairy Queen if we won, so woohoo!"
