The W.F. West softball team dropped a close pitchers duel Wednesday night at home in a league championship bout, 2-0, Wednesday afternoon at Rec Park. A lights-out performance from Aberdeen ace Lilly Camp cost the Bearcats the No. 1 seed and a league title.
Aberdeen was only able to put up two runs on the Bearcats in Chehalis in front of a packed house, but that showed to be all that was needed.
Camp went all seven innings, allowing just two hits and striking out 10 in a dominant performance from the circle.
“Camp was bringing it all night, late in the game she started mixing in the change up, and that's pretty devastating right there,” W.F. West coach Kevin Zylstra said. “Our girls battled, we had some chances early with runners on second, we just couldn't get the clutch hit.”
In a matchup that was expected to be a pitchers duel, the rumors did not disappoint. Ella Young threw the complete game for the Bearcats, striking out two and allowing seven hits, and keeping W.F. West in the game despite a lack of production at the plate.
“I had to make sure pitches weren’t down the middle,” Young said. “I had to limit the amount of balls they could possibly hit, and just work the corners hoping they would chase.”
Addison Froschauer and Saige Brindle picked up the lone hits of the evening for the Bearcats on a cold night at the plate.
Due to tiebreaker rules, the Bearcats — tied at 7-5 with both Rochester and Centralia — will have to play a play-in game on Friday against Rochester for the EvCo’s final district berth.
The Tigers were awarded the tiebreaker over both W.F. West and Rochester because they own a 3-1 league record against both schools combined, while the Bearcats are 2-2 and the Warriors are 1-3.
The Bearcats’ 2-1 season record over Rochester wasn’t taken into account, due to one game being counted as a non-league game, and that non-league contest — a run-rule WFW victory — would only be used as a tiebreaker if it were for seeding purposes alone, and a team wasn’t eliminated by the tiebreaker.
W.F. West is scheduled to play host to Rochester this Friday in a loser-out, winner to the district pigtail matchup.
