YAKIMA — Four north Olympic Peninsula high school teams begin play at various state softball tournaments beginning Friday.
Olympic League champion Port Angeles and Sequim both begin play at the 2A state tournament in Selah this weekend.
The Roughriders (19-9), third at the Bi-district tournament, are a No. 8 seed and will begin by playing No. 9 seed Ridgefield. Port Angeles got a relatively low seed despite being No. 2 in the state in Ratings Percentage Index. Ridgefield has an outstanding 22-1 record and is No. 5 in the state in RPI.
Port Angeles and Sequim come from a tough softball league with four teams from the Olympic League at the state 2A tournament and five teams ranked in the top 20 in RPI. North Kitsap and Olympic join the Riders and Wolves in the state tourney.
If Port Angeles wins, the Riders next play the winner of No.1 seed Othello or No. 16 seed West Valley of Spokane at 4 p.m. Friday in the state quarterfinals. If they lose, they go into the consolation bracket and would play the loser of Othello and West Valley at 2 p.m. Othello is 21-1 and ranked No. 1 in RPI as well as being the top seed in the tournament.
Sequim (13-8, No. 14 RPI) got a relatively low seed at 15. The Wolves play No. 2 seed WF West (19-4, No. 6 RPI) at 10 a.m. Friday. If the Wolves win, they would move on to play the winner of No. 10 Cedarcrest and No. 7 Olympic at 4 p.m. Friday. If the Wolves lose, they move to the consolation bracket to play the loser of Olympic and Cedarcrest at 2 p.m. Friday.
Port Angeles and Sequim are fairly far apart in the bracket. There is no chance of them to play before Saturday.
Forks (17-7, No. 15 RPI), the third-place finisher in the 2B Southwest 1/4 tournament, is a No. 8 seed and will play No. 9 seed Kittitas-Thorp (19-3, No. 12 RPI) at 10 a.m. Friday at the Gateway Sports Complex in Yakima. If the Spartans win, they would move on to play No. 1 seed Adna (18-2, No. 4 RPI) at 2 p.m. Friday. Adna beat Forks 12-4 at the 2B SW District 1/4 tournament.
Forks must win its first game Friday to stay alive in the tournament. If the Spartans beat Kittitas, they move into double-elimination and can afford to lose one game.
Quilcene, the winner of the 1B SeaTac League and the winner of the District 1/2 tournament, is a No. 6 seed at the 1B state tournament, also at the Gateway Sports Complex. The Rangers play their first game against No. 3 seed Inchelium at noon Friday. If the Rangers win, they next play the winner of No. 7 Wilbur-Creston-Keller and No. 2 Colton at 4 p.m. Friday. If Quilcene loses, the Rangers would play the loser of Wilbur-Creston-Keller and Colton in the consolation bracket at 4 p.m. Friday.
