PORT TOWNSEND — East Jefferson did plenty to be proud of but learned a painful lesson about finishing out games in a 16-12 nonleague softball loss to Bremerton at Blue Heron Middle School on Wednesday.
Bremerton was patient at the plate in its final turn at bat as the Knights accepted five free passes via walks, two players were hit by pitches and five more batters recorded hits, including a double off the wall in center field.
When the barrage was ended, Bremerton had plated 11 runs and led 16-12.
Quieted by the Knights comeback, the Rivals managed one baserunner in their last turn to bat when Marley reached on an error in the bottom of the seventh.
“The biggest thing for them to take away from this is to keep your head in the game,” coach Chad Witheridge said. “The biggest part is maintaining a constant focus. When one or two mistakes get strung together they need to pick each other up and that will help them grow. Every play, between innings, we need to communicate with each other and its all about picking each other up.
“We had the game won and one or two mistakes leads to frustration and that can take down any team.”
The Rivals built a 12-5 lead on the strength of some aggressive baserunning up and down the lineup and two RBI doubles by Rosie Marley, the second belted all the way to the wall in centerfield in the fifth inning.
East Jefferson scored nine runs on just one hit in the first two innings as the Rivals took advantage of Bremerton’s four dropped third strikes in the first inning, as well as three hit batters and three walks.
Once aboard, the Rivals were aggressive running the bases, with Gracie Smith and Azusa Kunii pulling off a double steal and Amaya Abbott beating out a pickle play by running over the Bremerton backstop at home plate to score another run.
Despite the defeat, every East Jefferson player contributed something during the game: Marley had the team’s best hits, Kaetyn Riley nabbed a sharply-hit liner at third base, Abbott made a snow-cone catch in centerfield, Breanne Huntingford dove for wild pitches and made good throws to the bases and Makayla Matheson drove an RBI single to the left-field gap and made good plays fielding throws at first base.
Second season back
East Jefferson’s Port Townsend-Chimacum sports combine has been in place since prep sports returned after a year-long pandemic pause in 2021.
But the softball program is only in its second year back — both Chimacum and Port Townsend last fielded teams in 2017 — leading to the idea of a softball program merger that wasn’t able to get off the ground until 2023.
It was particularly frustrating because softball had been Chimacum’s best team sport —from 2015 to 2017 the Cowboys won the Olympic League 1A Division three straight times, claimed the West Central District title in 2017 and advanced to the Class 1A state tournament all three years.
“I’m super excited for the future,” Witheridge said. “We saw everybody who played do something positive, do something good for the team. Everybody on the team has potential and I encourage them all to play every position and to know every position. It will help with backing up, knowing what to do if they get placed in that position.”
Bremerton 16, East Jefferson 12
Bremerton 3 2 0 0 0 0 10 — 16 7 8
East Jefferson 5 4 0 0 3 0 0 — 12 4 4
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Sports reporter/columnist Michael Carman can be contacted at sports@peninsuladailynews.com.
