The W.F. West softball team’s bats needed a spark Friday, and falling in a hole seemed to provide it to them, as the Bearcats roared back from a four-run deficit to beat 3A River Ridge 7-4 at Rec Park in a non-league contest.
After the Hawks dropped four runs in the top of the fourth, the Bearcats came right back in their half of the inning, with Lena Fragner singling two runs home and Brielle Etter scoring Fragner on a triple to cut the gap to one.
W.F. West tied things up the next inning on back-to-back doubles by Avalon Myers and Staysha Fluetsch. In the sixth, Addison Froschauer and Fragner hit back-to-back singles, and Etter did it again with another 2-RBI triple, before scoring on a sacrifice fly.
The Bearcats combined for six extra-base hits, between Etter’s two triples and doubles from Brindle, Fluetsch, Myers, and Savannah Hawkins.
“The girls are adapting well,” Bearcats coach Kevin Zylstra said. “It was nice to see us answer with those runs after that four-run inning. It was a fun game, they put the pressure on us and we were able to respond.”
Junior Ella Young threw three scoreless innings in the circle to start before running into the trouble spot in the fourth; she finished with four runs allowed — three earned — in 3 ⅔ innings. Fluetsch came in relief to get the Bearcats out of the jam and pitched to contact the rest of the way, sending the Hawks down for the final 10 outs with no strikeouts and no walks.
The win was also W.F. West’s 600th as a program, after their inaugural season in 1991.
The Bearcats will try to make it four straight wins over 3A schools Monday when they head south to take on Kelso in their final tuneup before 2A EvCo play begins.
