Central softball opens with victory as weather dominates spring opening

The cure to any long drought is apparently to schedule a high school track meet. Or softball game.

Mother Nature is the MVP so far as the spring high school sports season gets off to a slow start in 2026.

Butte High’s first track meet was wiped out by snow on Tuesday. The Bulldogs were supposed to compete with Missoula Sentinel, Missoula Hellgate and Butte Central.

The storm also washed out Butte High’s season-opening softball game at Gallatin, and wet weather on Monday prompted the early postponement of Tuesday’s Butte High vs. Butte Central baseball game.

In the spring, no schedule is written in stone. Luckily, you can keep track of all the changes with updated schedules that are always in the menu at ButteCast.com.

Butte High’s softball team will now open the season Friday with a home game against Kalispell Flathead. The Bulldogs’ game set for Thursday against Glacier was moved to next Tuesday at Stodden Park.

While Butte Central will now open the baseball season next Tuesday at home against East Helena, the Bulldog baseball teams are set to head to Kalispell play Flathead and Glacier Friday and Saturday. Those games, of course, are weather permitting, and the forecast does not look great.

In the limited action we did see, we saw some good things. Butte High dropped a pair of hard-fought baseball games as the Bozeman schools entered the fray on the diamond.

The Bulldog tennis teams opened the season at home against Billings West and Butte Central saw some good performances in a track meet in Corvallis.

Then on Tuesday, the Maroon softball team opened the season with a convincing win at Three Forks.

That is what we will be looking at as we take a lap around the Mining City sports scene for the first week of the spring season.

Maroons topple Wolves

THREE FORKS — Braelynn Schelin had herself a day Tuesday.

The Butte Central sophomore delivered in the pitcher’s circle and the batter’s box as the Maroons opened the softball season with a 12-2 victory. (Boxscore)

Schelin went 2 for 3 with a double, a walk and three RBIs to lead BC’s nine-hit attack in the game called by the 10-run rule after five innings.

She also pitched the distance, scattering three hits. She struck out four and walked three.

The Maroons opened with four runs in the top of the first inning. When Three Forks answered with two in the bottom of the Frame, BC shot back with three in the second, four I the third and one in the fourth.

Eighth grader Luci Fantini and sophomore Zayonna Otherbull joined Schelin with a pair of hits. Fanti blasted a home run and drove in two runs.

Sophomore Kenzie McQueary and eighth graders Blake Smith and Mila Carriger added hits. Smith, the leadoff hitter, also drove in a run and joined McQueary, who walked twice, with three runs scored.

Sophomore Kodee Badovinac and freshman Natalie Osterman each drove in a run in the win. Junior Marly Mansanti walked and scored a run, and eighth grader Jordyn Samson scored twice as a courtesy runner.

Senior Arika Stajcar and eighth grader Ryan Olson also played in the field for BC but did not make a plate appearance.

The Maroons, who saw Saturday’s game with Livingston rescheduled because of a conflict for the Rangers, now have a couple weeks off. Their next game is April 14 at home against Stevensville.

That is the Southwestern A Conference opener.

Bulldogs drop two

Butte High started the baseball season by making a little history for the two Bozeman schools.

Gallatin High and Bozeman High both beat Butte High in their inaugural Montana high school games.

Galltin beat Butte High 11-4 Friday at 3 Legends Stadium. (Boxscore) Less than 24 hours later, the Bulldogs fell in a 5-4 thriller at Bozeman. (Boxscore)

Against the Raptors, Butte High tied the game at 4 with two runs in the bottom of the fifth inning. Teagan Duffy singled in Cayde Stajcar. Then Duffy scored on an error.

The Bulldogs thought they were out of the top of the sixth unscathed. But a close pitch did not go their way, and Louis Musial made the Bulldogs pay. The Gallatin short stop doubled in Grayson Herz and Graysen Trenka to break the tie.

The Raptors tacked on a run before breaking the game open with four runs in the top of the seventh.

Musial went 3 for 4 with two runs scored and the two RBIs. His day included a triple and two doubles.

Rolen Quezada joined Herz with a pair of singles, and Braeden Matthews and Cody Smith each hit a double.

Duffy went 2 for 4 with two RBIs and a run scored to lead the Bulldogs. Logan Carden, Cole Solomon, Calvin Cunningham, Gunner Bushman and Evan McEwen added singles for the Dogs.

Chase Lubick and Noah Powers both pitched better than their lines might indicate in a game that saw the Bulldogs commit four errors.

Gallatin also reached on a pair of hits that were perfectly placed into the sun.

In Bozeman, it looked like Butte High would escape with a win a couple of times. Stajcar hit a no-doubt home run to put Butte High up 3-2 in the top of the fifth inning. Thins really looked good when the shortstop took a relay pass and gunned out a runner at the plate in the bottom of the inning.

A passed ball allowed the Hawks to tie the contest at 3 in the sixth, and Duffy singled in Stajcar for a 4-3 lead in the top of the seventh.

But the Hawks knotted the game when Luke Zundel singled in Caiden Pershing with the tying run.

Zundel then scored on an error as the Haws walked off with the win.

Duffy went 2 for two with a walk and the two RBIs. Carden, and Cunningham also singled for the Bulldogs. Grady Foley, Stajcar, Solomon, Duffy and Tucker Kissell were hit by pitches.

Brooks Vincent, Hunter Davies, Solomon and Cunningham pitched for the Bulldogs.

BC impresses in track opener

CORVALLS — Butte Central’s track teams opened the season Saturday at the Blue Devil Invitational. (Results)

Three BC boys placed second in an event to lead the Maroons to 25 points and an eighth-place showing in the 16-team meet.

Corvallis won the boys’ title with 96 points. Hamilton was next at 72, followed by Darby at 68.

Junior Danny McCarthy ran to second place in the 100-meter race, crossing in 11.55 seconds. Sophomore Palmer Kellicut took second in the 110-meter hurdles with a personal-best time of 16.34 seconds.

Freshman Henly Mansanti cleared a personal best mark of 5 feet, 10 inches to take second in the high jump.

Senior Will McGree jumped 36-1 ½ to place sixth in the triple jump, and junior Grady Button placed eighth in the 400 meters and high jump.

Frenchtown scored 102 points to claim the girls’ title. Hamilton took second at 84, and Polson finished third at 66. The Maroons scored eight points.

Harper McGree placed fourth in the high jump, clearing 4-6. That beat fellow BC freshman Evyn Tippett, who placed fifth, by two inches.

Tippett also placed sixth in the 200- and 400-meter races. She took eighth in the 100.

Senior Caden Tippett placed ninth in the shot put with a mark of 29-6.

Next up for the Maroons is the April 11 East Helena Invitational.

West tops Dogs on courts

Billings West’s boys and girls swept past the Butte High tennis teams Friday at Stodden Park and the West Elementary courts.

The Golden Bears won the girls’ battle 8-0, while West’s boys won 7-1. The match was the first under new Butte High coach Paul Miranda.

Tashi Hanley picked up Butte High’s lone win on the day. He beat West’s Nash Koffler 6-4, 6-4 in a No. 3 singles match.

Butte High’s Matthew Weldon played in what might have been the match of the day. He dropped a 6-2, 2-6, 10-7 decision to Owen Thayer in a No. 2 battle.

Joshua Schrader and Phillip Russo also played singles for the Bulldogs.

Butte High’s doubles teams were James Pearston and Max Pearson, Hunter LaPier and Kanyon Flynn, Briggs Joseph and Caleb Bradley, and Bryce Gratton and Jaxon Jonart.

Gratton and Jonart dropped a 3-6, 7-6, 10-6 battle to Jonah Schmaltz and Raleigh Kindsfath at No. 4 doubles.

Avery Blue, Carleigh Donaldson, Avya Williams and Alissa Pennock played singles for the Bulldog girls. The Butte High doubles teams were Chloe Jewell and Sienna Bradley, Bella Babb and Aubrey Allmendinger, Rory Trafford and Kenzie Read, and Lucy O’Leary and Emily Allred.