SOFTBALL STRING THEORY

Crowe has winning formula for Trotters

 

John Hamilton

ZEROING IN on the strike zone, Plains-Hot Springs pitcher Carlie Wagoner in action against Thompson Falls-Noxon March 30.

Call it softball string theory, and new Plains-Hot Springs coach Dani Crowe wants her Trotters to master it.

The Trotters opened season play in Thompson Falls March 30, falling to the hometown Thompson Falls-Noxon Lady Hawks 11-6. Crowe thinks her Trotters played well enough to win, they just did not string together enough plays to make a victory happen.

"Statistically we played pretty well," she said. "We were patient at the plate, had some really good at-bats. We just didn't string enough things together and Thompson Falls did in that fifth inning."

That fifth inning Crowe is referring to was a seven-run uprising by the Hawks that swung the game Thompson Falls-Noxon's way.

Hoping to reverse the effects of the softball string theory she is talking about, the Trotters head to Deer Lodge Saturday to play a doubleheader against the Lady Wardens. The game will have extra meaning for Crowe and her assistant coach/husband Dakota Crowe as both are alumni of Powell County High School.

"We have been talking with the girls stressing the importance of momentum," she said. "When we get opportunities we need to take advantage of them by stringing them together, and I'm confident that we can do that."

An all-state softball and basketball player during her prep playing days in Deer Lodge, Dani went on to play four years of college softball at the University of Montana when that program first started. "Technically, I was the first Montana girl to be on that team," she said.

Dani said that Dakota and her were childhood sweethearts attracted to the love of diamonds – of the softball and baseball variety. "We both love the game and it (coaching) is something we enjoy doing together now," adding that Dakota played college baseball at Miles City Community College and has held various coaching jobs in between then and now.

Dani arrived in Plains to teach and served as an assistant coach to Michele Bangen in 2019, stepping in for Kati Mitchell, who was pregnant at the time. After the 2020 season was cancelled due to COVID-19, Mitchell was set to be the head coach as Bangen had stepped down.

With Mitchell happily pregnant again this spring, Crowe was again given the opportunity to coach – this time as head coach – and accepted the offer, enlisting Dakota as her assistant.

Genetics may have something to do with the Crowes' love of coaching. Dani's father Kirk Walker (who she played for in high school) had an amazing record coaching the Powell County Wardens girls basketball team over the years, after starring as player for the Montana Grizzlies and the Darby Tigers in his playing days. "I guess you could say it is in my blood," she said.

Excited about her new job and the challenges ahead, Crowe said the Trotters will take the lessons learned from their first game with Thompson Falls-Noxon and move on and hopefully up from here.

The Trotters took a 3-0 lead after one inning and still led 5-3 heading into the bottom of the fourth. At that point the Lady Hawks started stringing some offense together, scoring one run in the fourth and seven in the bottom of the fifth to take an 11-5 lead.

The Trotters got back one of those runs in the seventh but could not break through against Thompson Falls pitcher Riley Wilson for more and eventually fell.

Celsey VonHeeder, Carlie Wagoner and Piper Bergstrom did the pitching for P-HS, with VonHeeder registering six strikeouts, Wagoner three and Bergstrom two.

Madison Elliott had a hit and a walk to lead the P-HS offense, Kaylah Standeford and Haylee Steinbach each had a run batted in and Kenzi Blood and Sylar Bergstrom had three quality at-bats each.

 

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