SELAH — Port Angeles advanced further than it ever had in the state softball tournament before falling one game shy of playing for a Class 2A state trophy.
Power hitting from Alicia Howell and strong pitching helped the Roughriders win more state games in two days than they had in their previous combined history.
Sequim, meanwhile, dropped two of its three 2A state games to fall short of claiming their third 2A trophy in four years.
In the Class 1B tournament in Yakima, Quilcene lost its opener but rallied to play for its second straight trophy.
Port Angeles earned its third win of the tournament with a 6-1 triumph over Fife on Saturday before being eliminated 12-3 after a nine-run eighth inning for Lynden later in the day.
In opening day play Friday, the Riders suffered a 6-2 first-round defeat to eventual state-champion Lake Washington, but rebounded to stay alive in the consolation bracket by pounding out 16 hits in a 9-2 win against Orting and then toppling Colville 8-5.
“The two wins were our goal,” Riders coach Randy Steinman said.
“No Port Angeles softball team has ever won more than one state game, so we are proud of that accomplishment.”
After a Carly Gouge walk, Howell blasted a two-run home run in the first inning to give the Port Angeles an early lead.
But the Riders only managed three more hits the rest of the way against the Kangaroos’ ace pitcher Tori Bivens.
“She was as good as advertised,” Steinman said.
“She can throw four different pitches, but was really getting us with her rise ball.
“It starts at your waist and you think it’s a belt-high fastball, and the next thing you know it’s across your chest and you can’t keep up with it.”
Lake Washington took the lead for good with a four-run third inning. The Kangaroos went on to play for the state championship Saturday night.
“We gave up a walk, an error, a passed ball and they hit a double to the wall that scored two of the four runs,” Steinman said.
“We made a couple of errors in that inning.”
Lake Washington 6, Port Angeles 2
Port Angeles 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 2 4 2
Lake Washington 0 0 4 0 0 2 x — 6 7 1
WP- Bivens; LP- Steinman
Pitching Statistics
Port Angeles: Steinman 4 IP, Wheeler 3 IP.
Hitting Statistics
Port Angeles: Howell 1-3, HR, 2 RBI.
Lake Washington: Walker 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI.
Port Angeles 9, Orting 2
The Riders extracted some revenge on Orting, which beat Port Angeles at the district tournament last weekend, with an offensive onslaught of 16 hits, including five doubles.
“Things were clicking offensively,” Steinman said. “Hitting the ball that well was nice and it was good to have a breakout.”
Howell and Tori Kuch were each 3 for 4 with a double and an RBI, Haley Gray was 2 for 4 with a double and an RBI and Sarah Steinman was 2 for 3 with a double and an RBI.
Carly Gouge went 2 for 5 and Wheeler was 3 for 3 with a double and an RBI for the Riders.
“We knocked their first pitcher out and then went through their second as well,” Steinman said.
Freshman Nizhoni Wheeler pitched a complete-game three-hitter to end Orting’s season.
Port Angeles 9, Orting 2
Orting 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 — 2 3 3
Port Angeles 0 0 1 0 5 0 3 — 9 16 1
WP- Wheeler
Pitching Statistics
Port Angeles: Wheeler 7 IP.
Hitting Statistics
Port Angeles: Gouge 2-5, Gray 2-4, 2B, RBI; Howell 3-4, 2B, RBI; Kuch 3-4, 2B, RBI; Steinman 2-3, 2B, RBI.
Port Angeles 8, Colville 5
Howell was 2 for 2 with a home run and five RBIs in the Riders’ 8-5 win against Colville (21-4) Friday night.
“She’s been seeing the ball coming in like a big watermelon,” Steinman said.
Howell’s three-run homer in the third inning opened the scoring for both teams.
“She hit it to right-center field and it hit the top of the fence and bounced over for a home run,” Steinman said.
“[Colville is] a solid team and hitting it really gave us confidence that we can beat any of these teams.”
The Riders led by as much as 8-1 before the Indians attempted a comeback.
Gouge was 2 for 4 with a double and Sarah Steinman added a pair of hits.
Wheeler tired a bit on the mound as Colville put two runs across in the sixth.
After pitching 16 innings spread across the three games, Wheeler was lifted after getting in trouble in the seventh inning.
Colville scored two more in the seventh and brought the tying run to the plate with two runners on against Riders reliever Sarah Steinman.
Port Angeles then made a double play on a line-out to first base to end the game.
“Nizhoni pitched a lot of innings yesterday, she was on, hitting her spots,” Steinman said.
“With the warmer weather over here the pitchers’ arms don’t get as sore and the ball moves a bit more.”
Port Angeles 8, Colville 5
Port Angeles 0 0 3 4 1 0 0 — 8 8 2
Colville 0 0 1 0 0 2 2 — 5 8 1
WP- Wheeler; LP- Cabbage SV: Steinman
Pitching Statistics
Port Angeles: Wheeler 6 IP, Steinman IP.
Hitting Statistics
Port Angeles: Howell 2-2, HR, 5 RBI; Gouge 2-4, 2B, Steinman 2-3.
Sequim goes 1-2 at state
SELAH — Sequim stumbled at the 2A state tournament, dropping two of three contests and were eliminated after Friday’s games.
The Wolves fell to a recently rolling Capital 4-1, then rallied late to stave off elimination in a 6-5 win against Ellensburg.
Sequim allowed a home run to the second Ellensburg batter in the first inning but responded with three runs of its own.
The Bulldogs scored four in the fourth to take a 5-4 lead before the Wolves rallied in the bottom of the seventh inning.
Mary Lu Clift hit a sacrifice fly and Olivia Kirsch scored the winning run against the Bulldogs.
The Wolves (20-6) were then beaten 10-1 by Fife in a replay of last Sunday’s West Central District tournament final, also won by the Trojans.
The Wolves allowed a grand slam home run by Fife sophomore Anna Kasner in that game.
Sequim 6, Ellensburg 5
Ellensburg 1 0 4 0 0 0 0 — 5 11 3
Sequim 3 0 1 0 0 0 2 — 6 7 2
WP- Ma. Bentz; LP- Burgess
Ellensburg: Allie Kopczynski 2-4, 2B, HR, 2 RBI; Taelor Griffin 2-4, 2B, RBI; Kassidy Kauzlarich 2-3
Sequim: Olivia Kirsch 2-4, 3B, RBI; Alexas Besand 2-2, RBI.
Class 1B state
Quilcene overcomes first-round loss
YAKIMA — The Rangers will finish the state tournament the way they started it, with a game against Almira-Coulee-Hartline in the third-place game, late Saturday night.
In the first round, the Rangers’ solid fielding let down as they committed seven errors in a 14-4 state tournament-opening loss to Almira-Coulee-Hartline.
After trimming the errors down to three in the second game, Quilcene prevailed 10-3 against Oakville to stay alive in the consolation bracket.
“We have a good deal of state experience, but for whatever reason we were a little tight for the first game,” Rangers coach Mark Thompson said.
In the opener, Quilcene made most of the blunders in a 10-run third for Almira-Coulee-Hartline.
“Most of them [the errors] came in that one inning,” Thompson said.
Down 11-4, the Rangers allowed three more runs in the fourth and couldn’t mount a comeback.
“We had the third out on a strikeout, but our catcher dropped the ball and threw to first to get [the batter] out but the umpire called it safe,” Thompson said.
Quilcene rebounded to knock off Oakville for the third time this year.
“We were able to coast a bit against Oakville,” Thompson said. “We nickeled and dimed them on offense [scoring runs in small chunks].”
The Rangers posted two runs in the first, three in the second and two in the third to take a 7-0 advantage over the Acorns.
Allison Jones was 2 for 4, and Emily Ward, Alexis Gray and Katie Bailey contributed hits for Quilcene.
The Rangers’ pitcher Sammy Rae struck out 12 and allowed just one earned run.
Almira-Coulee-Hartline 14, Quilcene 4
Quilcene 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 — 4 4 7
ACH 1 0 10 3 0 0 0 — 14 10 1
LP- Rae
Quilcene 10, Oakville 3
Oakville 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 —10 7 3
Quilcene 2 3 2 0 0 0 0 —3 3 5
WP- Rae
