Making a return trip to Grays Harbor after beating Aberdeen last Friday, the W.F. West softball team defeated the Bobcats for the second time in less than a week Wednesday afternoon in every kind of weather imaginable, 26-11.
“I needed to ice my arm after waving in so many runs,” Bearcats coach Kevin Zylstra said.
The weather led to some crazy totals, with the Bearcats opening the game with a 5-spot in the top of the first, only to see that lead erased in the blink of an eye with the Bobcats adding seven runs of their own in the bottom of that same inning.
The Bearcats responded with seven more runs in the top of the second, after scoring 11 runs in the fifth to pull away and win by run-rule, escaping the Harbor with two wins this season.
“The starting pitchers just didn’t have it today,” Zylstra said. “We knew right away we were probably going to have to score a lot of runs, but didn’t anticipate giving up as many as we did. Staysha Fluetsch came in and held them in check a bit, and stopped the bleeding.”
Fluetsch stepped in to pitch five innings of relief, allowing seven runs with four earned on five walks and nine hits with three strikeouts.
Lena Fragner went 1 for 2 with four runs scored with four RBIs and four walks drawn. Avalon Myers added a 3 for 4 line with three runs scored, three runs scored, two RBIs and two walks drawn. Chase White went 3 for 5 with three runs scored and three RBIs.
The Bearcats drew 14 walks as a team in the win and took advantage of six Bobcat errors.
“We stayed with that, we’ve been working on that quite a bit,” Zylstra said on the Bearcats’ plate discipline. “We only swung at a couple of bad pitches, but when everyone else is peppering the ball it's hard to stay back and not swing at close pitches. But they did a good job.”
The Bearcats will get a day of rest Thursday before taking on rival Tumwater back at Rec Park in Chehalis on Friday at 6 p.m.
