Quick Crosstown turnaround amplifies intensity

Usually there’s some separation between Crosstown softball games.

Not this week, when Great Falls High and C.M. Russell will hit the diamond against one another just a week after the Rustlers took a 5-2 affair in eight innings in the season’s first installment.

And it’ll be the third of nine games in an 11-day stretch for the two Electric City fastpitch teams. This one, set for 4:15 p.m. Tuesday at the Great Falls Multi-Sports Complex, is pivotal.

Perhaps it is especially so for CMR, which is unbeaten in Eastern AA play (5-0, and 8-1 overall). The Rustlers pulled off a victory in Round 1 thanks to second baseman Myla Robbins’ two-RBI double in the eighth.

Robbins, who was hitless up to that point in the rivalry game, said she had to let the butterflies calm down.

“I just had to clear my mind and put the ball in play,” she said. “I had to get the job done.”

Now another weekend farther into the season – and another conference sweep in the books for both teams – this installment has big playoff seeding implications.

CMR catcher Katie Huisman said her Rustlers are stomping on the gas down the stretch. They want to stay unbeaten.

“We’re going to come out with a different fire this time because we just want to win,” Huisman said before adding, “… and we want to win by a lot.”

Great Falls High, of course, will have something to say about that. The Bison (6-5, 4-3) scored 11 runs in the final frame to complete a sweep of Bozeman last week and hope to ride that momentum into the second half of the season.

In addition, GFH is working all-conference selection Bailey Ferda back into the lineup. The senior outfielder had sat the last several games since being hit on the right thumb early in the season.

“It was hard just not being able to be there for the team,” Ferda said. “I’m excited to come back and hopefully be stronger.”

She is hitless in three games since returning to the lineup, but the senior said she hopes to change that Tuesday.

“I don’t think I’ve lost anything physically, but mentally it’s hard to have been out a couple months and get back in the box like nothing happened,” she said. “But I think it’s getting better every day.”

The 11-run outburst couldn’t have been better for the Bison, though, Ferda said.

“I think that was a great thing for momentum to hopefully sweep through Crosstown and the rest of the season,” she said.

Of course, both teams are looking for that M-word – momentum – heading down the home stretch.

“We want to keep our undefeated record, so we’re going to play our hardest, of course,” Robbins said. “And this is Crosstown, so it’s an even bigger deal.”

Crosstown means a big crowd, too, and CMR coach Lindsey Gustafson hopes to take advantage of that for a former Rustler softball player. The teams will be passing a bucket around Tuesday to raise funds for CMR grad Julianne Vasichek, who had an emergency liver transplant in March.