TACOMA — Sequim advanced to its fifth straight state softball tournament with a pair of wins on the first day of the Class 2A District 2/3 tournament at Sprinker Fields.
Port Angeles also qualified for state but had to take a roundabout way to get there.
The Wolves opened the tournament with a 7-4 win over Steilacoom and followed with a 5-4 win over Liberty on Friday.
The second win clinched a state berth and moved Sequim into the district semifinals, where the Wolves faced White River on Saturday morning.
Late rally falls short
The Hornets opened the tournament by beating Bremerton 18-1 and Olympic 6-0.
Sequim did better than its fellow Olympic League teams, falling 5-4 to White River.
The Hornets opened with three runs in the top of the first and added one each in the fourth and fifth innings to take a 5-0 lead, but Sequim rallied with four runs in the bottom of the seventh.
The loss dropped Wolves into the third-place game.
Port Angeles won its opener over River Ridge 11-3 but then suffered its first loss of the season, a 1-0 setback to Fife on Friday afternoon.
That sent the Roughriders to the consolation bracket, where they had to win two games Saturday to reach their third consecutive state tournament.
They were up to the challenge, blanking Steilacoom 13-0 and then taking out Highline 8-2 on Saturday afternoon to reach the fifth-place game.
The 2A state tournament is Friday and Saturday in Selah.
White River 5, Sequim 4
White River 3 0 0 1 1 0 0 — 5 11 1
Sequim 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 — 4 6 0
Quilcene 10, Naselle 0
QUILCENE — Alex Johnson hit a three-run homer as Quilcene moved one win away from state by shutting down the Comets on Friday in the Bi-District semifinals.
Squalicum 5, Sequim 0
BELLINGHAM — The Wolves’ season came to an end in the regional round of the state tournament Saturday at Joe Martin Field.
“It was a good team that outplayed us,” Sequim coach Dave Ditlefsen said.
The Wolves had only five hits and committed five errors.
Squalicum, meanwhile, pounded out 10 hits — the bottom of its order was particularly productive — and only committed one error.
Sequim’s best chance to score came in the fifth inning when the score was 2-0.
Evan Hurn singled with two outs and stole second, and James Grubb followed with a hit.
“Grubb singled to center and Evan got thrown out on a real close play at the plate,” Ditlefsen said.
Hurn, Grubb, Dusty Bates, Gavin Velarde and Ian Dennis each singled for the Sequim, and each ended up being stranded on the base paths.
Tanner Rhodefer pitched for the Wolves and went the full seven innings.
“He’s still a little under the weather, but he’s just so tough. He throws pitches with a ton of heart,” Ditlefsen said.
Sequim finishes the season with a 13-10 record and made a state run despite being hampered by injuries and illness throughout the season.
“Like every team, we had our share of adversity to overcome,” Ditlefsen said.
“We made improvements, and I think we saved our best baseball for the end of the season.”
