VARINA, Va. — The North Olympic 16U softball team is hanging on by a thread at the Babe Ruth World Series tournament.
The Port Angeles team finished pool play 1-3 and probably is out of the running for double-elimination championship tourney play starting Monday.
Pool play ends today as Port Angeles waits to see how the other teams end up in the National Division pool.
Extreme heat and close calls have been the name of the game for North Olympic, which opened tourney play with two heartbreaking one-run losses.
Port Angeles went ahead before losing 3-2 to Lodi, Calif., in the first game of the tournament Thursday. It was the only game played as lightning storms postponed the rest of Thursday’s contests.
North Olympic then lost 2-1 to host team Varina, Va., on Friday before keeping its hopes alive with a 5-2 win over Pittsfield, Mass., later in the day.
Those hopes might have been dashed when Fern Creek, Ky., beat Port Angeles 5-2 on Saturday.
Varina, Va. 2, N. Olympic 1
Kearsten Cox got Port Angeles on the scoreboard first in the third inning when she singled, then came around to score with the help of a throwing error and then a wild pitch by Varina’s Caitlyn Adkins.
But that was to be all the scoring for the North Olympic team as Adkins kept the team off balance for the rest of the game, scattering just six more hits and not giving up any walks.
North Olympic pitcher Lauren Curtis held Varina scoreless until the fourth inning when Shak Green led off the inning with a triple into the right-field corner, and a missed cutoff allowed her to come into score to tie it at one.
A walk to Booty Robinson and two more base hits brought in another run for Varina and that was all the host team would need as North Olympic didn’t have an answer for Adkins.
Stacy Webb entered the game to pitch for North Olympic with the bases loaded in the fourth, then held Varina scoreless for the rest of the game, giving up only two hits and one base on balls.
Cox went 3-for-3, scoring a run.
North Olympic 5, Pittsfield 2
North Olympic finally got out the bats for its third game of the tournament, hammering out 10 hits to pick up its first win at the 16U World Series.
Kelsey Hinsdale, Cox, Webb and Tori Holcomb all had two hits to lead the offensive attack for North Olympic.
That started with a pair of runs in the second inning off singles by Webb and Lauren Aguirre.
Following a throwing error by the Pittsfield first baseman, “courtesy runner” Gina Delatorre scored from third to give Port Angeles an early lead.
Columbia Haupt then scored on the subsequent infield out to make it 2-0.
Haupt would score again in the fifth inning as a “courtesy runner” for catcher Lauren Aguirre, after Aguirre singled, then Holcomb doubled to left center field to drive in Haupt.
Pittsfield was only able to scratch out two runs off the masterful pitching of Webb, who went the distance, scattering seven hits and striking out seven while not giving up a single free pass.
Holcomb went 2-for-3 with a double while Haupt scored two runs.
Fern Creek 5, North Olympic 2
In a bid to keep their World Series tournament hopes alive, North Olympic ran up against a tough Fern Creek club that the Peninsula girls were able to hold at bay until a four-run sixth inning put Fern Creek up 4-2.
Just like its first three tournament games, North Olympic scored first, this time on the strength of a mammoth two-run home run blast by shortstop Mariah Frazier, who drilled a full-count fastball from Fern Creek pitcher Morgan Foley over the centerfield fence.
Frazier’s shot scored Crysta Crouse, who had led off the game by being hit by a pitch.
Unfortunately, just like their other two losses, North Olympic couldn’t play add-on after getting ahead early, and that would be the only two runs it could muster against the hard-throwing Foley.
The two-run lead looked good, however, as Webb pitched another stellar game for North Olympic, holding Fern Creek scoreless through five innings with her pinpoint control and a nifty change-up.
It wasn’t until the sixth inning that the Kentucky hitters were able to connect on four base hits, and with the help of two North Olympic miscues, pushed across four runs.
Fern Creek would then all but seal the deal in the sixth with another run after a base hit by Amber Hatton and a Port Angeles throwing error.
Foley then factored heavily into the game, facing only two North Olympic hitters over the minimum in the final three frames to keep Port Angeles from scoring.
North Olympic, while picking up only the single win out of its four pool-play games, as of this writing is potentially still eligible to advance to the championship round of the World Series tournament, but its destiny is no longer in its own hands.
