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The 2026 Kalispell Emeralds Girls' softball tournament is in the books! A total of 42 teams were at Kidsports Sports Park in Kalispell last Friday and through the weekend, June 12-14. After missing the tourney last summer due to a preplanned photography expedition to Mount Mazama, Crater Lake, and the Oregon Coast, ArtwestimageSports.com was excited to be back.
Working the Ems’ tourney is a wonderful way to network with younger local athletes and their always supportive families. We are also glad to see our high school softball player friends compete on different teams, with different teammates, against opponents from across the Northwest and Canada. We’re happy to report new Followers from Alberta, Idaho, and Washington, hopefully to see that our ArtWESTImageSports.com moniker truly lives up to its billing!
Our photography staff attended the tournament all three days, and by our count, were able to photograph at least a couple of innings, and even more for Sunday’s contests, of 51 different games. Those included action from all four age divisions, U10, U12, U14, and U16-18.
The tournament, sponsored by the Kalispell Emeralds Softball Association, featured several area teams, including six different Emerald teams that participated in all four age groups. We tried to get to several games for each, and enjoyed seeing the athletes from Columbia Falls, Whitefish, Mission Valley, and Libby compete as well.
The tournament got underway on Friday evening, marred by a steady drizzle, dark overcast skies, and generally chilly weather. The temperatures warmed a bit on Saturday, and partly cloudy skies made for a perfect day for softball. Sunday brought nearly clear skies and temperatures in the low 80s in the afternoon. As the tourney reached its apex with the final round games, the temperature of the action on the diamonds rose accordingly.
In this post, we’ve got imagery from the awards sessions following Sunday’s championship games, including the four age group champions and their respective runners-up. Both of the title game participants in each group received trophies and individual medals. Consolation bracket winners also earned a trophy and individual medals in all age brackets except U10, as their was only eight teams in that division.
The U16-U18 division was dominated by three teams from Calgary, with Adrenaline-Johnston U18 defeating the Calgary Kaizen U17-Hunter squad 11-3 in the title game. In the third-place tilt, the Calgary Kaizen U17-Setter team shut out the Idaho Falls’ Fury Elite U17 team 5-0.
In the U14 division, an outstanding Mission Valley Thunder team, who went 6-0 during the tourney and outscored opponents 72-1, including an 8-0 blitzing of the Libby Dirtballers in the finale. The North Idaho Chaos-Hemmah beat the Spokane Epic-Thompson team 20-5 in the consolation final.
The U12 age group was won by the Kalispell Emeralds-Hunt team, who edged the Spokane Epic-Buscher nine 13-12 in nine innings. The Emeralds jumped out to an early five-run lead, but the Epic came back to tie the score 8-8 at the end of seven innings. A total of nine runs were scored in extra innings, with the critical score for the Ems coming on an errant pitch by the Epic hurler.
The U12 consolation game was won by the Mission Valley Thunder, who outscored the Emerald’s Waverek 6-3.
The U10 division was dominated by the 6-0 Emerald’s Spratling team, who jumped on the C-town Rebels early and hit their way to an impressive 16-0 win. The Rebels were 5-0 coming into the championship game.
Our photography team shot a total of over 10,000 images over our softball weekend, and we release this short series of watermark-free photographs from the awards presentation for all four divisions.
Two great guest photographers took in weekend action on our behalf, with both Ollie Stolls of Kalispell and Delaney Ullrich of Whitefish, working at several games. Look for their work as part of our feature posts beginning later this week, with age group summaries, feature games, and stories on specific athletes.
For now, please LIKE, FOLLOW, and SHARE this post, featuring watermark-free imagery, if you see someone you know!

Kalispell Emeralds Fastpitch, Calgary Adrenaline Fastball Association, Columbia Falls Youth Softball, Mission Valley Mariners Baseball

To our great surprise, during the state championship tournaments in the final weekend of May, a fellow photography enthusiast, Jacob Piapot of Ronan, informed us that he would be in Polson for the inaugural Class A/B Baseball tournament.
We jumped at the opportunity to include his photography on our page, hoping our followers from the tournament teams would love to see his outtakes from the five state tournament games he attended. On the first day, he saw Bigfork versus Billings Central, and Columbia Falls against Columbus. Day Two, he attended Laurel versus Billings Central, and Whitefish against Frenchtown. On Championship Saturday, he was at the Dillon versus Bigfork title tilt.
Our baseball friends from Bigfork made Viking program history by upsetting the top-ranked, 19-1-1, Beaverhead County for the Class A/B championship. The Beavers were on a 12-game win streak after suffering a 7-2 defeat by Florence-Carlton on April 28 and a 7-7 tie with Missoula Big Sky.
The Beavers beat Whitefish 5-3 in the opening round of the tourney, and then knocked off Columbia Falls 5-4 in the semifinal.
The Vikings, in just their third season as a program, play at a community-funded and built Flathead Beacon baseball complex north of Bigfork. ArtwestimageSports.com staff attended two games at the facility during the regular season and enjoyed both games at their beautiful new facility. It is certainly a source of pride for the players, coaches, the school, and all the people involved in its construction.
The young Vikings, with just 11 players on their varsity roster, had their ups and downs during the regular season, but played well enough to finish second in the North A standings, compiling a 16-5 overall and 11-3 league record.
Bigfork qualified for the state tourney by beating Hamilton 4-3 in ten innings in the Western A play-in game in Hamilton on May 22. In the first round of the state event, the Vikings knocked off highly regarded Billings Central 1-0 in a tense game on May 28.
The Vikings then defeated a strong Frenchtown club by the score 4-2 in the semis to advance to the Class A/B championship game.
In the title contest, junior Mason Lewis pitched a complete game for the Viks and surrendered just one hit against the powerful Rams. Lewis finished the game with a .045 on-base percentage on a total of 89 pitches against 27 batters in an efficient performance.
The Vikings’ sophomore catcher, Wyatt Hickey, scored the lone run for Bigfork in the third inning, with senior Hayden Mayer getting the RBI. Seniors Grady Campbell and Max Shara, along with Hickey got the other Bigfork hits in a very defensive battle.
In the semifinal, the Vikings’ Shara took his turn on the mound and had almost as good a performance as Lewis’s outstanding performance. Shara pitched all seven innings, allowed 6 hits and two runs, with just one earned. Shara pitched a total of 32 batters and got 64 strikes in 93 total pitches.
Against Frenchtown’s hurler, Dawson Rodoni, the Vikings gave up 12 strikeouts, but managed six hits and four earned runs in a total of 27 at-bats.
Rodini controlled the first five innings of the game, supported by Bronc runs in the second and fifth innings.
Up 2-0 in the bottom of the sixth inning, Rodini gave up four runs as the Vikings came from behind to secure the win.
Hickey had another nice game at the plate, getting two hits in three tries, and also tallied an RBI. Shara, Mayer, and Campbell also got one hit and scored a run, with Holland Janzen getting a hit and Lewis scoring Bigfork’s fourth run.
In Saturday’s finale, Beaverhead jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the second inning, but in the top of the third stanza, Mayer smacked a two-out double to give Bigfork a 3-1 lead. Mayer later scored to put Bigfork up 4-1 after three innings.
Dillon’s starter, Cohen Hartman, injured his pitching arm and was examined by the training staff on the field. After an attempted warm-up pitch, the Beaver’s ace was removed from the game and replaced by Garrett Tackett.
The Beavers got another run in the fourth inning, as Trenton Moreni singled and scored to bring the score to 4-2.
In the fifth and sixth innings, the Vikings' defense made two big plays. In the fifth, Bigfork catcher Hickey threw out Dillon’s Sawyer Tackett, who was attempting to steal second base. With two out in the sixth stanza, shortstop Campbell snagged a hard liner to strand Dillon’s Jase Alvarez at second base.
The Vikings’ advantage lasted until the top of the seventh inning, when Mayer added an RBI single as part of the Vikings’ game-securing three-run surge to secure a 7-2 championship win.
Mayer took his turn on the mound for the Vikings in the final and gave up just five hits and two runs in yet another complete game. Mayer faced 28 Beaver batters and threw 56 strikes in 91 total pitches.
Mayer also helped his cause in the batter’s box, getting two hits in four at-bats, and totaled four RBIs, while scoring two runs. Lewis also had two hits, with one scoring an RBI, and Hickey crossed the plate twice. Junior Ryder Hamilton got the final Bigfork hit, while Rye Rodriguez and Shara added one run apiece to the Vikings’ total of seven.
Beaver pitchers Hartman and Tackett combined for 132 total pitches against 32 Bigfork batters. Together, they played a fine game, giving up five hits, racking up 13 strikeouts, and issuing two walks against the Vikings.
Bigfork was highly represented on the North A and State A post-season honors list. Senior Hayden Mayer and junior Mason Lewis were named first-team all-conference as well as All-State.
Senior Max Shara was named to the North A second-team, and juniors Rye Rodriguez and Cavin Weist were tabbed with North A honorable mention status.
Other area players were named to the Class A All-State team, including Whitefish’s Tait Orme, Columbia Falls’ Nico Young and Jett Pitts, Polson’s Cody Haggard, and Cole Wadsworth, as well as Lincoln County’s Rowan Burrow and Tyce VanOrden.
Please LIKE, FOLLOW, and SHARE Jacob Piapot’s collection of Photographer’s Favorites if you know someone who’d enjoy it. We’ve posted over 200 of his tournament photographs on our website, including the 80 watermarked thumbnails used in this gallery collection. Use the link in the comments section to go to his full-size and watermark-free custom collection, all available for purchase by families of the participants.

Bigfork School District 38, Dillon Beaver Booster Club, Frenchtown High School, Whitefish High School Baseball, Billings Catholic Schools, Columbus School District, Columbia Falls Wildcat Baseball