The Capital City 18U Thunder stormed into the championship game of their age group during the Capital City Classic girls fastpitch softball tournament Sunday.

After winning their semifinal game against Electric City Heat, by a lopsided 12-0, the Thunder staged comebacks two different times in the title contest at Northwest Park before settling for second place. The Thunder fell in a tense one-run loss to the Red Deer (Alberta) Sliders, 8-7 in the eighth inning.

Despite the difficult loss, Capital City coach Mike Miller emphasized the positive achievements of his team: “It was a tough one to lose, yes, and maybe we gave them a couple extra chances, but I couldn’t be prouder of these girls.”

The Capital City Thunder team is a combination of Capital High and Helena High players.

The local nine jumped out in front of the Sliders 3-0 in the first inning, behind scoring by Kalli Heller, Kendra Silverthorne, Carly Grant and Megan Graff.

The Red Deer, which had beaten Helena the night before in pool play, scored once in the second and four times in the third stanza to take a 5-3 lead.

In the fifth frame, Grant, pitcher Josie Grotbo and Jordyn Gillespie produced a pair of runs to tie it up at 5-5. The Canadians took a 7-5 lead in the sixth, but the home team refused to quit. They again knotted things up with a pair of runs in the seventh, behind the offense of Grotbo, Gillespie, Graff and Sarah Jackson.

The Sliders pulled off the victory under the international tiebreaker rules, as Red Deer’s Brittany Spracklin drove in Sarah Walz with the winning run in the overtime. Grotbo was tabbed with the loss.

Red Deer is located between Calgary and Edmonton. It is a nine-hour drive to Helena, and according to Rita McKinnon, mother of Sliders centerfielder Becky McKinnon, all the players and most of their families drove here in separate vehicles.

“We have really enjoyed coming down here, it’s especially nice to play against different competition for a change,” McKinnon said.

She explained that the Sliders are made of players from several different towns and even a few girls who live on farms. “We don’t even have a league up there, we usually have to drive a hundred miles to Calgary just to get a game,” she said.

“I rolled the dice in the tiebreaker and came up short nn I think if we had it to do over again, I might do things a little differently,” Miller said. “But we had a lot of fun this weekend, and we beat two very good teams this morning. Easily.”

In their first game Sunday, Capital beat the Glacier Emeralds 6-4, powered by the big bats of Graff and Jackson. Graff went 2-for-3, belting a home run and a double, while driving in three runs. Jackson also went yard. Carly Grant was the winning pitcher, with Grotbo earning the save.

Against the Heat nn who were champions of last week’s Bozeman tournament nn Grant and Grotbo combined to hurl a six inning no-hitter against the powerful Electric City club.

The locals banged out 13 hits, paced again by Graff and Jackson, who each went 3-for-3. Jackson ripped a pair of two-baggers and produced five runs batted in. Sarah Sesselman rapped two hits and drove in three runs. Graff, who is from Capital, was 6-for-9 on the day, for a .667 average.

“That’s my first home run, and I was so excited, I didn’t know what to do, I was like skipping around the bases,” explained Graff after the semis. “We’re just having a lot of fun; I really love playing with the Bengals. They’re nice girls.”

Champions in the other divisions in the Classic were the Missoula Bandits over the Great Falls Select in the 14U(A); Polson Lakers over Heat in the 14U(B); Selects over Billings Bulldogs in the 12U(B); Glacier Emeralds over the Billings Force in the 12U(A); and Emeralds over the Bulldogs in the 10U.

Reporter Curt Synness: 449-2150 or email curt52s@bresnan.net