PREP SOFTBALL: Roughriders win league title over Vikings with authority

Published 12:15 pm Saturday, May 9, 2026

PORT ANGELES — Going into the third inning, North Kitsap seemed in control of the Port Angeles softball squad, holding a 3-1 lead.

The Vikings lost that control and the Roughriders won the Olympic League championship with a 13-3 victory.

Both teams came in to Friday’s game tied for first place at 12-1 in league. Pitcher Charizma Fake had beaten Port Angeles 3-1 earlier this season, striking out 14 Roughriders. She seemed in total charge again as the Vikings were seeking to sweep the Riders and win the Olympic League championship themselves.

Then, Riders’ slugger Kennedy Rognlien drove a towering drive to deep left field. North Kitsap left fielder Lisa Johnson sprinted back to the fence to make an outstanding catch, robbing Rognlien of a home run.

Though it was just a loud out, it turned out to be a harbinger of things to come. The Riders were seeing Fake’s pitches well and they were figuring out how to drive those pitches hard. Every better pounded her pitches in the third.

Morgan Politika followed with a line drive down the left-field line for a double. Nyomie Colfax and Mikkiah Stevens followed with solid singles, then Mariah Traband came up with the big hit of the inning and maybe the game, slicing a two-run triple to the right-field fence to drive in two runs to give the Riders the lead at 4-3. It was a lead Port Angeles would never surrender.

Traband came in to score on a sac fly by Lily Ann Lancaster to make it 5-3.

Meanwhile, Allison Leitz came in to pitch in relief and she kept the Vikings in check, holding them scoreless over the final four innings.

The Riders added an insurance run to make it 6-3 on a Traband RBI single, then in the sixth, Port Angeles blew the game open. The Riders kept scoring by simply pecking away. They didn’t hit the ball far, stringing together a series of walks and infield singles, aided by a couple of North Kitsap errors, to make it 10-3.

Fittingly, with the bases loaded, Rognlien, a senior playing in her final home game, came up again with the bases loaded. She sliced a triple down the right field line to clear the bases, giving the Riders a 13-3 victory on the 10-run rule. That hit not only ended the game, but it officially gave Port Angeles the Olympic League championship.

Coach Morgan Worthington said the big difference in this game was confidence.

“The girls were not confident in that first game. When you’re not confidence, you play tight and nervous,” she said.

“We were much more aggressive. We came ready to play. We knew this would be a big game. We were all hyped, a little nervous, but we were ready for this,” Rognlien said.

Rognlien said she was frustrated at losing her home run, so when she came up in the sixth with the bases loaded, she said to herself, “I better get a hit. It felt really good to get it.”

Traband, who has been hot the whole second half of the season for the Riders, said she tries to take a simple philosophy to hitting against a tough pitcher like Fake.

“It’s it’s ‘see ball, hit ball.’ I wasn’t think about anything except that,” she said. “We just started rallying. Our energy level in the dugout is a big part of it.”

Port Angeles (16-2 overall), which climbed up to No. 3 in the state in Ratings Percentage Index with the victory, plays a nonleague tuneup game Monday at White River. Then the Riders begin district tournament play as a top seed in Lacey on Friday.

Traband finished 4-for-4 with three runs scored, a triple and four RBIs.

Port Angeles 13, North Kitsap 3

NK 1 0 2 0 0 0 x — 3 8 2

PA 0 1 4 0 1 7 x — 13 15 0

Pitching

PA —Reid 2.2 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 2 R; Leitz 3.1 IP, 5 H, 4 K.

Hitting

PA — Traband 4-4, 3B, 3 R, 4 RBI; Rognlien 2-4, 2B, 3B, R, 3 RBI; Politika 2-4, 2B, 2 R; Colfax 2-4, 3 R; Reid 2-4, R; Stevens 1-3, R, 2 RBI.

Olympic 11, Sequim 10, 11 innings

BREMERTON — The Sequim softball team had a heartbreaking end to its regular season, fighting Olympic hard to 11 innings, but falling in the bottom of the 11th, 11-10.

The Wolves (4-10, 5-11) now sit back and await their district tournament seeding. They likely will still make the tournament as a No. 11 or No. 12 seed.

The Wolves got down 4-0 early, but rallied with a four-run sixth inning. Mattie Messenger had the big blow with a three-run double. McKenna Cox added an RBI double to score Messenger.

The game went to extra innings. Sequim took a 9-5 lead in the 10th inning, but the Trojans were able to score four in the bottom of the 10th in tie it. Rilynn Whitehead had an RBI single in the 11th inning to give Sequim a 10-9 lead, but Olympic hit a pair of doubles in the bottom of the 11th to win it.

Messenger finished 2-for-5 with a double, three RBIs and two runs scored. Ava Ritter was 2-for-6 with a double and a run scored, while Kiley Winter was 2-for-4 with two runs scored and an RBI. Cox finished 2-for-5 with a double, a run scored and an RBI.

Whitehead pitched 10 innings, allowing 12 hits and seven earned runs.

Olympic 11, Sequim 10, 11 innings

Seq. 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 1 0 4 1 — 10 11 1

Oly.2 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 4 2 — 11 13 2

Pitching

Seq. — Whitehead 10 IP, 12 H, 7 ER, 2 K; Cox 0.1 IP, H.

Hitting

Seq. — Messenger 2-5, 2B, 2 R, 3 RBI; Ritter 2-6, 2B, R; Winter 2-4, 2 R, RBI; Cox 2-5, 2B, R, RBI; McClurken 1-5, R, RBI.