The Lakeland Hawks softball team battled it out with their league rival the Sandpoint Bulldogs in the district tournament. The Hawks came out on top with the win 14-8, a huge win for the Hawks at home.
Lakeland was firing on all cylinders against the Bulldogs knowing what was on the line for this game.
”We knew how important this game was for our season,” Delilah Zimmerman said.
Lakeland got a great performance from Reagan Masters as she struck out nine batters over 4.2 innings while giving up three earned (and four unearned) runs off seven hits. Those nine strikeouts gave Masters a new career-high.
The Hawks were feeling good on the mound but that’s not only where they were showing their strengths.
Back at the plate, Raygen Dutton was incredible, firing off two home runs, five RBI, and three runs while going 3-for-4. Those two home runs gave her a new career-high. The team also got some help courtesy of Ada Blakemore, who went 2-for-3 with two runs, two doubles, and one stolen base.
The Hawks were on the Bulldogs early taking a 5-0 lead in just the first inning and Lakeland had no plans on letting up. The Hawks continued to put more and more runs up and the Bulldogs just could not keep up with this Lakeland pace which would eventually lead to the Bulldogs falling too far behind for a late game comeback.
The Hawks had a similar start to their last game against the Lewiston Bengals. An early lead was established but late in the game the Bengals came back and walked it off. This was a feeling the Hawks never wanted to feel again, and they made sure there was no coming back for these Bulldog rivals.
This win has officially broken the Hawks seven game losing streak at home, and now the Hawks are advancing further into postseason.
They will have a play-in game against Skyview in Moscow on May 10 at 1pm.
