SELAH — Watching the Port Angeles softball team swing the bat, you can almost feel the panic sweat forming in the palms of opposition pitchers.
At any time, on any count and with virtually every player in the lineup at the plate, the Roughriders, who open the Class 2A state tournament on Friday in Selah, pack home-run hitting potential.
Port Angeles has had home run hitters in the recent (Ashlee Reid and Alicia Howell) and more distant past (Allie Rae).
The program also has had junior slugger Natalie Steinman in the lineup and hitting homers since her freshman season.
Her dad, Riders’ head coach Randy Steinman said she’s the most productive home run hitter in school history and her 11 home runs in 20 games this season (which would project to an astronomical 89 home runs in a 162-game Major League Baseball season) are another school record.
But Natalie Steinman’s case of dingeritis has spread up and down the lineup this season.
“This year’s team is setting records over all previous teams,” Randy Steinman said before the district tournament last week. “They just love to hit the ball and work very hard at it. They put the time into it at practice to get better and better every single day and they are reaping the rewards now.
“And you know how it is, you hit one home run and it’s contagious. You’ve got the confidence and they start coming in bunches. It’s like you can’t miss. So that’s what we are working on, trying to get that confidence so the ball looks like a big watermelon.”
That’s exactly what happened as Port Angeles romped to the first district title in school history, belting five home runs in three games and outscoring opponents 29-2.
Natalie Steinman, who hits second in the batting order, has 11 home runs, and homered in all three district tournament games last weekend.
Senior catcher Lauren Lunt has four long balls on the season, and erupted for two grand slams last Saturday, one in a 16-0 district semifinal win over Orting while the other opened some breathing room for Port Angeles in a 13-2 district title game triumph over White River.
Home runs also have come from cleanup hitter Kylee Reid (Ashlee’s sister), who has four; No. 5 batter Nizhoni Wheeler who has three; and Nikkaila Price who has three homers hitting at the bottom of Port Angeles’ potent batting order.
Reserve Erin Edwards also launched her first career home run during the final week of the regular season.
All told, the team has racked up 26 home runs in 20 contests.
“Almost every kid has that home run potential, it just doesn’t matter who is up to bat,” Randy Steinman said.
“And every kid has had a bad game or two but it doesn’t matter because somebody else will pick them up with a home run, a double, a triple or by going 4 for 4. The team unity comes into play, if somebody is having a bad day, they know they have each others’ backs and its not a big deal. Somebody else will fill that spot.”
Reid said the whole team is capable at the plate.
“Everybody in the lineup one through nine and everybody on the bench can hit and we haven’t always seen that,” Reid said. “And everybody through the lineup can hit home runs which always helps.”
This spring’s sopping-wet weather forced the Riders to spend many days practicing indoors, honing fundamentals in their swings.
“It was the worst spring weather-wise, we’ve ever had,” Randy Steinman said.
“But the time we’ve spent on hitting, on the fundamentals and the full sequence of hitting have really helped us. It was a good thing to be stuck indoors. If you are off just a little bit in that sequence you won’t be able to square the ball up and hit it with as much power. We really broke it down at the start of the season that these are the absolutes that you have to do when you are hitting. And they’ve bought into it.
“And some kids haven’t hit home runs in games, but they are hitting them in practice, so we know they have the potential in a game. They just have to be present and on time to hit it square and drive it for distance. And we aren’t trying for base hits, we are trying to drive the ball hard.”
Natalie Steinman said all the rain and mud was a big help.
“I think it actually helped a lot being in the gym so often because we really broke down everything that has to do with hitting or defense. “And it has helped us a lot and it shows in our hitting because our batting averages are high and we’ve hit a bunch of home runs.
“I think that’s what makes us so tough. We can compete a lot better offensively than we have in previous years. We can all bunt, we can all hit and we can all hit home runs.”
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Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-417-3525 or mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
