WHITEFISH — Jackson Lubke threw five scoreless innings and Cash Lawrence went 3-for-3 at the plate as the Bitterroot Red Sox defeated the Kalispell Lakers at the Western A District Legion baseball tournament Friday at Memorial Field.

The Red Sox advance to take on the Bitterroot Bucs in Saturday’s 2-0 game. 

“We are fortunate that we do have a lot of arms, but (winning) saves a lot of pression on arms,” Red Sox manager Trevor Paro said. “It lets guys get in the groove and stay fresh for whatever happens.” 

The Lakers fall into a loser-out matchup with the Missoula Mavericks at 1 p.m., it’s the same position that Walker Malmin’s squad saw themselves in a year ago. 

“We have guys who were on that team last year, who won day one and lost day two and fought back to play on Sunday,” Malmin said. “We are more well-equipped this year to do it than we were last year, and we feel confident that we can go do that.” 

The Bucs handed the Cranbrook Bandits their first loss of the tournament 9-1 in the first winners bracket game of the day. 

In the early matchups, Missoula eliminated Mission Valley with a 3-2 decision and Libby knocked out the host Glacier Twins 10-6. 

Red Sox 10, Lakers 0

Lubke allowed two hits and struck out five Lakers batters en route to the complete game shutout. The game ended after five innings due to the run rule. 

“Kudos to Jackson, he was on. He has been an All-Stater for the last three years for a reason and he showed it tonight,” Malmin said. 

“Our coach tells us every game if we are on the mound to just go and throw strikes and I did that the best I could,” Lubke said. “I tried to throw first pitch strikes and then just stay ahead the whole at-bat.” 

Lawrence drove in three runs and scored a twice himself, his two-run double in the second gave the Red Sox a 3-0 lead. 

Bitterroot seized control of the game with a big fifth inning, plating seven runs as 12 batters came to the plate. 

Elijah McNair-Neal sent a pair of runners home with a bases loaded single to right field that made it 7-0. After two more runs came in on bases-loaded walks, Boedy Tadvick called game with a single to left that scored Trevyn Bakken. 

Liam Rech and Miles Arrowsmith picked up the hits for the Lakers, who put up their biggest challenge to the shutout in the top of the fifth. A pair of walks and an error led to the bases being loaded with one out, but Lubke got Rech to strike out and Tait Orme to ground to third, ending the threat. 

Arrowsmith’s pitching kept the Lakers in the game, going 4 2-3 innings and allowing four hits. He fanned three batters. 

“Miles did a good job competing and weathering the storm early,” Malmin said. “I felt like we had our chance offensively and we just weren’t able to execute tonight.” 

Bucs 9, Bandits 1

Mason Arlington went seven strong innings on the mound for the Bucs, allowing two hits and one run. He fanned five batters. 

At the plate, McCoy Endres drove in two runs and crossed the plate twice in a 3-for-4 outing. 

Chase Wagner added a pair of hits and scored three runs. 

Ty Dupley drove in the lone run for the Bandits on a single in the sixth inning. Michael Clark had the other hit for Cranbrook. 

Loggers 10, Twins 6, loser out

Aidan Rose hit an RBI single to spark a five-run fifth inning that gave Libby a 9-6 lead that they didn’t relinquish. 

Three runs followed on errors and one more on a walk for the Loggers, who scored 10 runs on seven hits. 

The Twins took a 4-0 lead in the second inning spearheaded by two RBI singles.  

On the mound, Dawson Juntunen went 4 1-3 innings for Glacier, allowing four hits and striking out three. 

Libby got four innings from J Woody, allowing six runs on five hits and striking out one batter. 

Mavericks 3, Mariners 2, loser out

Landon Pablo went the distance for the Mariners, allowing just three hits, but it wasn’t enough. 

Lincoln Chamberlain’s two-run single in the third put the Mavericks ahead 3-0 and they didn’t look back. 

Mission Valley got a pair of runs in the sixth on two errors that scored Aiden Gfroerer and Bryson DuMont. 

Cole Jenkins threw a six-hit complete game for the Mavericks, striking out three. 

Western A District Tournament 

July 24-27, Memorial Field, Whitefish 

Thursday

Game 1: Bitterroot Bucs 7, Missoula Mavericks 1 

Game 2: Cranbrook Bandits 7, Mission Valley Mariners 1 

Game 3: Kalispell Lakers 7, Libby Loggers 5 

Game 4: Bitterroot Red Sox 5, Glacier Twins 4 

Friday

Game 5: Missoula Mavericks 3, Mission Valley Mariners 2 

Game 6: Libby Loggers 10, Glacier Twins 6 

Game 7: Bitterroot Bucs 9, Cranbrook Bandits 1 

Game 8: Bitterroot Red Sox 10, Kalispell Lakers 0 

Saturday 

Game 9: Cranbrook Bandits (24-22) vs. Libby Loggers (15-33), 10 a.m. 

Game 10: Kalispell Lakers (28-23) vs. Missoula Mavericks (18-21), 1 p.m. 

Game 11: Bitterroot Bucs (24-15) vs. Bitterroot Red Sox (34-12), 4 p.m. 

Game 12: Winner 10 vs. Winner 9, 7 p.m. 

Sunday

Game 13: Loser 11 vs. Winner 12, loser third, 10 a.m. 

Game 14: Winner 13 vs. Winner 11, championship 1 p.m. 

Game 15: If necessary, 4 p.m.