Saturday's Prep Softball: Titans Blank Pirates to Win District Title

The Titans are on top of District 4 once again, as Olivia Matlock threw a shutout to lead Pe Ell-Willapa Valley to a 7-0 win over Adna in the 2B District Championship softball game at Borst Park in Centralia on Saturday.

It is the second district title in three years for the Titans. PWV defeated Napavine in the 2017 championship game, 10-0. The Tigers defeated the Titans in the title game last season, 6-4.

“It is absolute confidence you’ve got to have. We were really loose in the beginning, I think they probably were too, they would probably say the same thing. That’s a good team over there, that is an awesome team, coached well,” PWV coach Ken Olson said. “We were pretty calm and I think that helps us. I had to sit down with them this week, they said I was getting too stressed so I had to calm down. I wasn’t probably as calm as I could have been, but it was all good energy and they feed off of that stuff and I feed off them so going into state getting the No. 1 seed is not a bad deal.”

Matlock allowed two hits and four walks while striking out 10 batters. She was also 2-for-4 with a bat and knocked in a run.

Katelyn McGough was 2-for-3 with two runs and Kamryn Adkins, Jeorgi Ritzman and Britney Patrick each had a hit, a run and a RBI. Grace Hodel added a hit and a RBI and Katie Adkins had a hit and a run for the Titans.

“I really think it’s a combination of both. She (Olivia) kind of had them baffled I think. I don’t know, I’m not at the plate but boy she had a good day,” Olson said. “Grace (Hodel) called a good game behind the plate and our kids made plays. I think we only had two errors, so solid defensively but when it comes down to it, you’ve still got to score runs and manufacture runs and I thought we did that well today.”

Payton Aselton and Kaylee Ashley had the only hits for the Pirates. Adna coach Bruce Pocklington did not think his team performed well on Saturday.

“PWV came out and put it on us a bit. We made a couple of bad decisions and made a couple of bad plays, it was downhill from there,” Pocklington said. “I don’t think we reacted to those plays very well. They’re a really good team, they put some base pressure on us, put the ball in play a little bit. We didn’t swing the bats when we needed to. Olivia did a good job of pitching at us, we’re going to have to get better before next week.”

PWV started the scoring in the first inning as a throwing error allowed McGough to come home and Britney Patrick grounded out to bring home another run for a 2-0 lead.

McGough scored on another error in the second inning and Sadie Howard scored on a fielder’s choice in the third for a 4-0 lead after three innings.

The Titans put the game away with three runs in the fourth inning. Katie Adkins hit a single to bring home Ritzman and Matlock grounded out to bring home Adkins. Hodel knocked a single up the middle to bring home Patrick for the final run of the game.

Adna had runners on base on multiple occasions but could never muster a run.

“We had runners on and the next two or three batters just didn’t have good at bats,” Pocklington said. “We talked about quality at bats a whole bunch this year and we didn’t have quality at bats. We chased some pitches out of the zone, hit some pitches that were in our count favor and had bad swings. We just didn’t attack very well.”

The loss snaps a 19-game win streak for the Pirates that began on March 16. Adna has secured a state tournament spot and will compete in Yakima next Friday and Saturday, and Pocklington knows what his team needs to work on before their first game on Friday morning.

“Our mental aspect of battling and fighting. We’re a good team, we didn’t come out to play today,” Pocklington said. “We have two losses on the season, one early and this one. This is a good time to lose, so we’re going to do the same thing we keep doing and we’ll show up, part of that is probably my fault. We just were a no show today and this isn’t the most important game of our year.”

These two teams have been the best in the district all year and a rematch one more time in the state championship game isn’t out of the question, but Olson isn’t ready to comment on a rubber match.

“Too far away, I ain’t going to go there. I’d like to comment but I’m not gonna,” Olson said. “I’m sure that they would want it but if it does, Bruce and I talked before the game and said we play each other and it makes us better, it does. He’ll have some things he’s gonna work on and we have a few things we picked out of our game today that we need to work on and we’ll be ready come that first day.”

Note: Ocosta won 16-1 over Onalaska in the third place game. Toutle Lake defeated Toledo 12-1 in the fifth place game, with all six teams competing in state next Friday and Saturday.

W.F. West Defeats Aberdeen to Earn State Berth

LONGVIEW — W.F. West’s Paytton Crawford and Ashlyn Whalen each hit a home run and Kamy Dacus did her thing in the circle to help the Bearcats win 7-2 in a District 4 2A softball tournament winner to state game here on Saturday.

Dacus allowed eight hits and one walk while striking out seven batters and leaving seven runners stranded on base.

Crawford and Whalen each hit two run home runs and Annika Waring was 2-for-3 with two RBI.

W.F. West scored four runs in the first inning and three runs in the second for a 7-0 lead. Aberdeen plated two runs in the seventh.

“Great, no complaints. They were coming up big in the clutch in the early innings,” W.F. West coach Caty Lieseke said. “Four of those runs with two outs, that’s the stuff you love to see headed into this level of playoffs.”

The Bearcats are headed back to state once again next weekend.

“Fantastic. Coming into today knowing we got four berths instead of three and knowing we need to take care of business in this one. We came and took care of business and it’s a fresh start and our eyes are towards Friday,” Lieseke said.

W.F. West will compete in the 2A state softball tournament on Friday and Saturday at Carlon Park in Selah.