WHITEFISH — On a warm Friday evening, Columbia Falls head coach Chad Green was showered off with a water bucket as the team celebrated their 12-0 victory over their rival Whitefish in high school baseball at Smith Fields.

“He’s kind of a grumpy guy so we figured let’s get him fired up a little bit with the water bucket,” senior Reggie Sapa said.

The Wildcats won their eighth straight game to improve to 13-1 on the season and officially clinched the North conference.

“We are undefeated in conference play, and we own the tiebreaker over Eureka, so technically if we lost tomorrow and Monday we would own the tiebreaker over second place,” Green said.

“We sealed the conference, we are the kings of the north, but we are taking tomorrow and Monday serious.”

Jett Pitts set the tone on the mound, pitching a complete game two-hit shutout, both to Tait Orme on his way to the victory. He fanned six across five innings as the game was called early due to the run rule.

“It is always a pleasure to face your rivals, but I always go out there with the same plan to throw strikes and let the field do the work,” Pitts said.

And throw strikes he did.

Pitts didn’t walk a batter while Columbia Falls capitalized on nine bases on balls, five of them coming off starter Reed Boyer who lasted just two innings. Boyer finished the game allowing two hits and four runs, all of them earned.

“Jett Pitts is special, he is only a sophomore, so he has some maturing to do but the kid is a great baseball player,” Green said. “He gets fired up to face these guys but he’s our big game pitcher, if we have a big game Pitts is going to be on the mound.”

Freshman Jaxon Cadwell started the scoring for the Cats in the second inning, when he singled home a run after Boyer walked the bases loaded. Cadwell added an RBI double in a 6-run fifth inning that helped the Cats pull away late.

After Jory Hill flew out to centerfield to start the fifth, the next eight Wildcats reached base, highlighted by Cadwell’s double. Cooper Ross walked to load the bases before three RBI singles from Nico Young, Jett Pitts and Brady Matson blew the game open with Matson’s hit scoring two.

Matson finished with two hits and drove in three runs out of the cleanup spot. Young added two hits, and two runs scored. Reggie Sapa walked twice and scored twice.

Orme finished with the only two hits for the Bulldogs (11-3), both singles, who were swept in the two game season series against Columbia Falls. They will head to Bigfork tomorrow to face the Vikings at 1 p.m.

Saturday is Senior Night at Columbia Falls where they host the Troy Trojans at Sapa-Johnsrud Field with first pitch scheduled for noon.

“We want to send our seniors out with a bang, so we will come ready to play and although we have already won the conference, we are trying to build off these games and get ready for state,” Green said.

Jett Pitts (5) and Cooper Ross. Reed Boyer (2), Christian Schawderer (4), Tait Orme (5) and Avery Caton.

COLUMBIA FALLS — Cooper Ross 1-3, Nico Young 2-3, Reggie Sapa 0-2, Brady Matson 2-4, Jett Pitts 1-4, Jory Hill 1-3, Treysen Murphy 0-1, Wyatt Dodson 0-1, Jaxson Cadwell 3-3.

WHITEFISH — Ryan Conklin 0-3, Carter Godsey 0-2, Tait Orme 2-2, Christian Schawderer 0-1, Finn Ryan 0-2, Luke Dalen 0-2, Avery Caton 0-2, Max Barone 0-2, Calvin Esienbarth 0-2.

2B — Cadwell. RBIs — Matson 3, Cadwell 2, Sapa 2, Hill, Pitts, Young.