PORT ANGELES — Good things come to those who wait.
Monday’s Port Angeles-North Kitsap softball game was nearly two years in the making due to COVID’s cancellation of the 2020 season. And the Roughriders’ rally for a 5-4 walk-off win over the Vikings came down to their last at-bats.
Port Angeles put together a four-run seventh inning to pull past North Kitsap and their hard-throwing and slugging star Makayla Stockman in each squad’s first game since the 2019 Class 2A state tournament.
Stockman hit a two-run homer in the top of the first to put the Vikings up 3-0. And she entered the final frame having struck out 11 Rider batters and leading 4-1.
But Stockman struggled with control in the game and she allowed free passes to Teagan Clark and Zoe Smithson to open the bottom half of the seventh.
“Absolutely, throughout the whole game we were trying everything,” Port Angeles coach Randy Steinman said when asked if the Riders were trying to be as patient as possible at the plate with Stockman. “Crowding the plate, trying to get her to give up walks.
“She has a tendency to get a little wild. When we played them down there [in 2019], she beaned Jada [Cargo-Acosta] in the elbow twice and she had to leave the game.”
Cargo-Acosta gained some revenge when she lit into a Stockman offering, smashing a three-run homer beyond the fence in left field.
“Jada, my God. She strikes out twice, but gets a double [earlier] and a three-run bomb to tie it up,” Steinman said. “Good redemption by Jada there.”
Cleanup hitter Ava Brenkman followed with a single and was replaced on the basepaths by Anne Edwards, who moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Peyton Rudd.
Taylor Worthington followed with the game-winning RBI single to right field to score a hustling Edwards on a close play at the plate.
“These girls never give up,” Steinman said. “And we know they can hit, and they got three hits in a row there at the end.
Clark earned the win, allowing four runs on seven hits with eight strikeouts and two intentional walks of Stockman.
“Teagen did really well on the mound,” Steinman said. “I’m proud of the ladies. They did awesome.”
Port Angeles 5, North Kitsap 4
NK 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 — 4 7 1
PA 0 0 0 1 0 0 4 — 5 7 2
WP: Clark LP: Stockman
Pitching
Port Angeles: Clark 7 IP, 4 R, 7 H, 8 K, 2 IBB.
North Kitsap: Stockman 7 IP, 5 R, 11 K, 7 BB.
Hitting
North Kitsap: Stockman 1-1, HR, 2 RBI, 2 IBB ; Burgh 2-3, R, ; Phillips 2-4, RBI, Dvorak 2-4, RBI, R.
Port Angeles: Cargo 2-4, 2B, HR, 3 RBI, R; Brenkman 1-3, BB; Rudd 1-2, BB; L. Halberg 1-3; Clark 0-2, 2 BB, R; Smithson 0-2, 2 BB, R; Robinson 0-1, BB, R; E. Halberg 1-3; Edwards R.
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Sports reporter/columnist Michael Carman can be contacted at mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
