MISSOULA – The Missoula Mavericks and Bozeman Bucks split a legion baseball doubleheader in very different ways at Lindborg-Cregg Field on Saturday. The Mavs scored a walk-off 3-2 win in the bottom of the 7th of the opener. The Bucks dominated the next game 17-0.
Missoula held a 1-0 lead going into the 5th in the first contest. Michael Freund and Alton Gyselman gave the Bucks the lead briefly with back-to-back RBI singles. Brendan Hill answered in the bottom of the 5th with a deep drive to center. Kehler Murfitt made a great running catch, but Dane Fraser easily tagged up from third base to tie the game 2-2.
The game remained tied into the bottom of the 7th. Then with two outs and Fraser on first base, Hill came through again. He ripped a hard grounder that third baseman Sage McMinn dove for. The ball bounced off McMinn’s mitt, and rolled into the large foul territory at Lindborg-Cregg Field. That allowed Fraser to sprint all the way home to give the Mavericks a 3-2 victory.
Tradd Richardson also added two hits and an RBI for the Mavericks. Freund was the only Bucks hitter to record a pair of hits off Missoula’s pitching combination of Fraser and Dylan Chalmers.
Game two quickly went the visitors way less than an hour later. Bozeman scored twice in the top of the 1st, on a walk and a hit batter with the bases loaded. Missoula advanced runners to second and third in the bottom of the 1st, but McMinn picked up a clutch strikeout.
Then Bozeman’s bats blew the game open. Murfitt, Ben Hubley and Finn Snyder each hit doubles in a five-run 2nd inning. The Bucks totaled nine runs in the third, highlighted by a double with the bases loaded by Ethan Coleman. The game ended in the fifth due to the ten-run rule, 17-0.
Snyder and Hubley each finished 3/4 at the plate. Logan Pailthornpe went 1/2, driving in four runs. Freund scored three times in the blowout.
