2B Softball: Pirates Knock Off Tigers for First State Title Since 2011

YAKIMA — The Pirates left last year’s state tournament much earlier than they had planned. Considering the eventual state champion was a Toutle Lake team Adna had beaten for the district title, the Pirates made the three-hour trip home with a bad taste in their mouth.

From that point they embarked on a mission.

“It was from Day 1 that I knew they would get us back here,” Adna coach Mike Raschke said. “With the athleticism and the chemistry that we’ve had all year, we just kept on going.”

The mission carried over the following 364 days until Saturday, where, after dominating the entire State 2B Softball Tournament, the goal came to fruition in a 13-3, six inning victory over Central 2B League rival Napavine to win the state title.

The Tigers came in with momentum, defeating a favored Toutle Lake team 5-2 in the semifinals.

The Pirates, on the same token, were red hot, defeating their first three opponents by a combined 49-5 score to reach the finals.

Napavine started things off and, from the very beginning, felt the defensive pressure of the Pirates. Maddie Thompson outran a slap single before Grace Hamre’s bunt went foul only for Hamre’s body to carry it back in play, resulting in the first out due to batter interference.

After a tough catch made by Riley Wellander deep in right field, Adna catcher Lili Glover made a sharp pickoff play to catch Thompson diving back to first, retiring the Tigers with no damage.

Adna fared better when their turn at the plate came around, beginning with a Josey Sandrini single followed by a Shanay Dotson single and a Cheyenne Gilbertson fielder’s choice. Ace Sam Rolfe brought in Dotson with an RBI double and Gilbertson found her way to home on a miraculous slide, missing the tag of Karlee Bornstein before making a dive to the plate for the score.

Given the chance, the Tigers struck back convincingly, starting with a leadoff single from Bornstein and another single from Sage Atkins. A fly-out separated the two hits from a Devanie Kleemeyer triple to bring both to the plate. Tack on another single from Chelsea Oster and the Tigers took a 3-2 lead.

The strong efforts continued, but the lead wouldn’t last. A Katelyn Pine single was punctuated by a 2-run homer from Glover that flew deep to center field to give the Pirates the lead that would only grow from there.

Glover remained hot from behind the plate, going 4 for 4 with 3 RBIs.

“I was feeling it. I don’t know,” Glover said of her offensive performance. “I stepped up to the plate with confidence. That was the main thing. We started off hot and finished hotter.”

Glover went from retaking the lead to stifling the Tigers, making two straight force-outs at home just to turn the last into a 1-2-3 double play to end the top of the third frame.

“It was an excellent game from Glover,” Raschke said. “Home run, throw outs, double plays, she did it all today.”

Tacking on four more hits, including RBI singles from Glover and Kendra Stajduhar, the Pirates owned a 6-3 lead at the end of the third.

Stajduhar also came up big for the Pirates, going 4 for 5 with 3 RBIs of her own. Rolfe added a 4 for 4 performance with 2 RBIs and two doubles to the statsheet.

Rolfe went the distance for the Pirates, allowing eight hits and no walks against a gritty Napavine offense.

After being sat down in order, the Tigers responded with some defensive work of their own, retiring the Pirates without a run scored for the first and only time of the game.

After sending the first three batters back to the dugout once more in the top of the fifth stanza, Adna began to smell blood, leading to a pinch-hitting Tabitha Dowell knocking a triple to start the biggest rally of the ballgame. From there, three singles, three doubles, and a hit by pitch resulted in 7 runs, bringing the Pirates within 1 run of the mercy rule before Napavine could end the inning.

“That’s how this team is,” Raschke said. “Once one girls gets going, we all get going. It just steam rolls. I attribute a lot of that to our team chemistry. It’s amazing.”

For Napavine, cutting the Pirates short would only delay the inevitable. After promptly retiring the Tigers once more, Adna sent Glover to the plate to hit a one-hop single, followed by Stajduhar to knock a deep fly ball to left field, leaving Daisy Bower — Glover’s courtesy runner — to round third and emphatically hop on home plate with the winning run.

Then came the celebration.

Raschke and his squad stood by the statement that nothing was going to stand in their way come playoff time. With the utmost poise and confidence, they proved it.

“Someone came up to me and said, ‘Hey, the softball gods are going to get you, because you said that nothing was going to get in our way,’ and I really believed that,” Raschke said. “This team has hit the ball all year. We felt like we had to do this, for everybody.”

In all, the Pirates racked up 20 hits over the course of the ballgame.

“It was worth it,” Raschke said. “All the hard work. There is no doubt in my mind that it was worth it.”

It was at this time that Raschke received the ceremonial ice water bath, to the cheering delight of the collective Adna crowd.

The support was immediately apparent from the first pitch, with a multitude of noise radiating from both the dugout and the Adna stands that did not cease for the remainder of the night.

“I owe it all to this team, up and down, all 20 of them,” Raschke said. “The dugout was amazing, they were screaming and jumping up and down the whole time. Their support was huge. Then you look at our fanbase. They are unreal. I love this community.”

Sseniors Gilbertson and Aubri Jimenez will graduate with first place hardware, something that the Pirates haven’t achieved since 2011.

“I’m going to miss them tremendously,” Raschke said of the seniors. “They are the heart and soul of this team, but we’ve got freshmen, sophomores, and juniors that have all contributed.”

Gilbertson had been searching for the moment her entire prep career, starting school just after the 2011 title, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.

“I’m overjoyed. This is insane,” a breathless Gilbertson said. “I hope that next year’s class can do this and have the same feeling. We’ve worked hard all year for this, all of it. I’m so happy.”

Jimenez, in just her second year at Adna, has experienced the trials from the disappointment of last year to now. She echoed the team attitude that permeated throughout all tournament long.

“We tried not to overlook them,” Jimenez said of opponent Napavine. “But I felt like we had it all in the bag. We’re just well put together. I’m beyond happy, especially that I get to leave here with a state ring. We’ve been working all season and I have no doubt that we earned this. We worked hard.”

As for the future, with just two starters gone, the potential will be the same for next year, establishing the Pirates as a perennial powerhouse.

“The chemistry will stay and with my whole coaching staff back with me. We’re going to be right here again next year,” Raschke said. “I’m not going to be a Pat Riley and guarantee another title, but we’ll be back.”

Third/Fourth

Walk-Off RBI Lifts Toutle Over MWP

YAKIMA — The Morton-White Pass Timberwolves were looking good against defending state champion Toutle Lake, but ultimately fell to the Ducks, earning fourth place in the State 2B Softball Tournament here on Saturday.

In the bottom of the seventh inning, pitcher Rae Curry knocked a sacrifice fly to right field, allowing Sam Woodley to come home for the walk-off run.

Sharon Hazen highlighted the MWP offense with a 2-run homer in the second inning. Morton-White Pass coach Darin Allen credited Zoe McCoy for her performance on the mound in a complete-game effort.

The Timberwolves graduate Taylor Brooks as the lone senior on the squad.

From being the No. 6 seed (8-10 league record, 17-15 overall) out of the Central 2B League to claiming fourth place at the state tournament, Allen was proud of how far the team has come this year.

"The girls competed," Allen said. "You talk about overachieving, we overachieved."

Semifinals

Tigers Upset Ducks for State Title Berth

YAKIMA — Coming in as the two-time defending state champion, Toutle Lake was easily one of the more heavily favored teams in the State 2B Softball Tournament. Napavine, however, came through with some clutch hitting to upset the Ducks 5-2 in the state semifinals here on Saturday.

Things didn't appear promising in the first frame of play, with the Tigers committing two of their three errors, one of which resulted in a Mikayla Deffenbaugh run.

The Tigers came close to responding on their first trip to the plate, but remarkable catches in the outfield resulted in two runners being stranded in scoring position.

From there, both squads clamped down on the defensive end. The Tigers bent to allow errant hits, but not much could be strung together to put runs on the board.

Napavine's Erika Potter showed sharpness at third base, catching several screaming line drives to prevent scoring situations.

Toutle added one more run in the fourth inning on a RBI groundout from Tea' Bruce to score Ashlynn Dean.

No single Tiger but Haley Dickinson recorded more than a hit, but the bats compounded when they were needed. Dickinson hit a single and reached third base on two straight sacrifices. A clutch single from Potter brought Dickinson in to put the Tigers on the board in the fifth frame.

The real rally came in the sixth, which began with three straight singles. A fielder's choice from Chelsea Oster brought in Sage Atkins and another single Dickinson brought in Devanie Kleemeyer. The table was set and Grace Hamre delivered with a 2-run double before the inning came to an end.

With only three outs standing between the Tigers and the championship game, Napavine faced trouble. A walk and a single, followed by a sac fly sent runners in scoring position. A hit by pitch loaded the bases, leaving pitcher Abbi Music in a precarious position.

After a pop up that found it's way into Music's glove for out No. 2, Shelby Levang stepped up to the plate for an at-bat that lasted 15 pitches — including a premature celebration from the Tigers — before Music's final pitch hit it's mark for the win.

Music notched seven strikeouts, nine hits, and four walks in her complete performance.

Pirates Overcome Rough Start to Topple Titans

YAKIMA — For a moment, it looked like the Titans had the Pirates' number. The next moment, Adna got back into postseason form, scoring 15 unanswered runs to best Pe Ell-Willapa Valley 15-5 in five innings in the semifinals of the State 2B Softball Tournament here on Saturday.

The Titans began to tee off right away, scoring the first five batters through consecutive singles, walks, and a rare Pirate error. PWV followed up by shutting Adna down in the bottom of the first inning.

From that point on, Adna cleaned up their performance and didn't make another mistake. After retiring the side in order in the second stanza, the Pirates followed up with seven hits, including a Josey Sandrini triple and doubles from both Cheyenne Gilbertson and Katelyn Pine, to score 8 runs.

The Pirates continued to dominate, sitting down the Titans 1-2-3 in the third and fourth innings and adding 6 runs to their own totals in the process. Adna allowed one more hit before shutting things down with the final run in the bottom of the fifth.

Gilbertson went 3 for 3 for Adna while Darian Humphrey was 2 for 3.

Consolation

T-Wolves Defeat Titans in High Scoring Affair

YAKIMA — Runs came at a rapid pace for both squads and, after creating a sizable lead, Morton-White Pass survived a rally to edge Pe Ell-Willapa Valley 17-14 in a consolation semifinal of the State 2B Softball Tournament here on Friday.

The Timberwolves led the Titans wire-to-wire, holding a 4-3 lead after the third inning. A 5-run fourth inning was punctuated by a Sharon Hazen grand slam.

Hazen went 3 for 5 with 5 RBIs in the ballgame. Christine Robbins was also a highlight for the Timberwolf offense, going 2 for 3 with 3 RBIs. Robbins went five innings on the mound, as well, striking out five.

Errors began to plague the Timberwolves in the fourth inning, with two miscues coming in a 3-run charge by the Titans. MWP began to seriously pull away in the top of the sixth stanza with 7 runs, putting the Titans in a 10-run mercy rule situation if they failed to score in the bottom half.

PWV came through with assistance from the T-Wolves. The Titans score 5 runs, with 3 coming off of errors and another coming due to a wild pitch. MWP didn't score again, but were able to salvage things enough to bring the Titan rally to a close.

Dakota Brooks led the Titans offense with a 4 for 5 performance, recording 4 runs and 2 RBIs. Brooks also struck out five of her own in the loss.

The Titans graduate Jessica Cook, Lacey Joner, Lexie Brooks, and Cheyenne Brooks.

Note: Morton-White Pass reached the game by knocking out DeSales, 7-6, in a loser-out consolation game on Saturday morning.