YAKIMA — Like other large parts of this postseason, Friday was not up to par for the Adna Pirates. They committed six errors in the field, allowed River View to hang around, and nearly blew an 11-run lead.
That all mattered little in the end, though, as the Pirates celebrated on the field after Charlie Myers struck out a Panther to get the final out.
After all, as former N.C. State coach Jim Valvano said, this time of year is all about one thing.
Survive and advance.
“I don’t know if I’m surviving,” Adna coach Bruce Pocklington joked with a smile. “But they are.”
The third-seeded Pirates punched their ticket to the state semifinals, holding off No. 6 River View for a 17-16 victory in a state quarterfinal at the Gateway Sports Complex in Yakima.
It’s Adna’s seventh straight trip to the final four, a streak that dates back to the 2018 tournament (not counting 2020 and 2021, where there was no tournament due to COVID-19).
Between the quarterfinal victory and its first-round win earlier in the day, a 13-3 win over No. 14 Lake Roosevelt, the Pirates scored 30 runs.
“We kind of answered the bell a little bit today,” Pocklington said. “Offensively, we were a lot better today.”
In the quarterfinal victory, Adna (19-7) scored seven runs in the second and three in the third, and another run-rule victory seemed imminent.
Instead, the defensive woes that have plagued the Pirates throughout this postseason reared their head again.
Across the fourth and fifth innings, River View took advantage of four Adna errors by scoring nine runs and getting within two.
From there, the back-and-forth commenced.
Adna responded with a four-run fifth, and River View answered with four runs of their own in the sixth. Tieander Olson hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the sixth for some key insurance, and River View’s Bree Stacy responded with a two-run shot of her own in the seventh.
“I knew (River View) was a scrappy team,” Pocklington said. “And they scrapped us.”
After the home run, the Panthers scored another run, and they had the tying and go-ahead run on base when Myers got the strikeout to put the Pirates through to the semis.
Olson finished 4 for 4, driving in five runs and scoring three times while finishing a double shy of the cycle, Alyssa Carroll added two hits and drove in three runs, and Khloe Hunt tallied two hits and also drove in a pair.
Teagen Baggenstos went 3 for 3, brought home a run, and scored twice, and Myers added two hits and an RBI of her own to help herself.
In the Round of 16 win, Hadleigh Gerard went 3 for 4 with three RBIs, Presley Strodemeier hit a home run and drove in three as part of a two-hit day, and Lena McCloskey also left the yard with a two-run home run.
In their semifinal, the Pirates will face a familiar foe.
No. 2 Toledo topped No. 7 Pe Ell/Willapa Valley in the top half’s other quarterfinal, setting up the fourth matchup between the Riverhawks and Pirates of the season.
Toledo won the most recent meeting, a district semifinal last Friday in Centralia. If Adna wins the semifinal, it will play for its fourth straight state title, a feat that has only been accomplished two other times across all classifications in state history (Colton won six straight 1B titles from 2009-14 and Royal won four straight 1A championships from 1983-86).
“2B Central, we knew that was gonna happen,” Pocklington said. “(Toledo) is playing well, and we’re going to have to play better tomorrow to get them … We’re gonna have to shore it up defensively if we’re gonna have a chance.”
