Fisher, Wildkats enjoying big season

Fritz Neighbor, Daily Inter Lake, Kalispell, Mont.
·3 min read

May 19—Aletheia Fisher figures to teach middle school math someday, but it doesn't take algebra to crunch Columbia Falls' softball numbers.

For starters Fisher is one of nine Wildkats hitting over .300 this season, as they head into a home showdown with visiting Polson at 6 p.m. Saturday.

Ace pitcher Maddie Moultray has a 14-1 record; Haden Peters has driven in 36 runs in 20 games. Two Wildkats, Aspen Dawson and Haylee Lawrence, are hitting over .500.

Columbia Falls had three losses all spring, to AA Glacier and. ... Class B powers Florence and Manhattan. OK, sometimes the numbers don't add up.

But an early-season, 14-4 win at Polson has the Kats and their second baseman thinking big.

"They had a few errors (the Pirates committed nine)," Fisher recalled. "But I think our team was able to get on their pitcher pretty well. I think we hit better against her than most teams. Then we had a ton of momentum.

"It was a huge game for us, though. I think we all felt like we could do something special."

The Polson pitcher is Katelyn Druyvestein, a hard-throwing senior with a State A championship from 2021 in her back pocket. Six Pirates hit over .300 — Druyvestein leads the way at .472 — and Polson has that championship pedigree.

Columbia Falls has that "mo."

"We had to fill a few holes, and the girls have just done a really good job," veteran Columbia Falls coach Dave Kehr said. "They've hit better than I thought they'd hit, honestly. Our team average is .448, which is outlandish."

The defense has fallen in place nicely: Lawrence moved from second over to short, and Fisher — she played shortstop as a sub-varsity freshman — has fit perfectly into second.

"I figured she'd be good at it," said Kehr, who had her playing left field and some third last season. "She has good speed and good range."

Aside from that, Fisher is going places. The State A tournament is a week away in Hamilton. After that, Crown College, a Christian school in St. Bonifacius, Minn., awaits. It's where her parents went, and where brother Payton is a junior.

Aletheia — her pastor father Joe took a philosophy course at Crown, and her name means "truth" in Greek — plans to play soccer and softball.

"I'm going to study elementary education, with a middle school math endorsement," she said. "I want to teach middle school math."

One of three seniors, Fisher helps make Columbia Falls solid up the middle: Dawson, a senior, is in center (Abby Darsow, the third senior, plays right field), and sophomore Demye Rensel has taken over at catch.

Add a little luck to that outlandish batting average and this could be a historic season.

"We've got just a lot of good girls and a deep bench," Fisher said. "We made it to state (in 2021) and we didn't go as far as we hoped. We were pretty good but not at the top level.

"I think this year we definitely have a chance to do something pretty