YAKIMA — Playing in three straight high-wire act games at the state 1B softball tournament, the Quilcene softball girls came as close as humanly possible to winning it all, going 10 innings and having the tying run at third base in the bottom of the 10th before finally bowing to Pomeroy 5-4.
All three games the Rangers played at state were decided by a single run and two of the games went to extra innings. Quilcene beat Sunnyside Christian 5-4 in eight innings, beat Colton 8-7, then got into another dogfight against Pomeroy in the 1B championship Saturday.
“Those were the three most intense games I’ve ever coached,” said head coach Mark Thompson.
Against Pomeroy, the score was tied 3-3 after seven innings. After nine innings, a runner is put on second base. Pomeroy and Quilcene each scored a run in the 9th to tie it at 4-4. In the 10th, Pomeroy laid down two straight sacrifice bunts to get the runner from second home.
Quilcene had a runner on third in the bottom of the 10th. Katie Bailey hit a hard shot, but Pomeroy’s first baseman was able to snag it for the final out.
“We drove the ball the whole game, but we hit it right at people,” Thompson said.
“It was a crusher to lose the last one, but … it was a pretty good weekend,” Thompson said.
Bailey Kieffer and Alexis Gray each had two hits, with Gray picking up two RBIs. Madison Coffey, Allison Jones, Erin Macedo (playing on a badly sprained ankle) and Abby Weller all had hits, while Katie Bailey had a double. Kieffer struck out 13 batters from the rubber.
Thompson said Macedo gutted it out through her bad ankle and just missed hitting a three-run home run that would’ve blown the game wide open.
Thompson couldn’t be more proud of the Quilcene girls.
“This is a great group of young ladies who did their best,” he said.
Gray was a beast for the Rangers the whole state tournament, driving in eight runs in the three games. Kieffer pitched all three games, striking out a total of 34 batters.
The Rangers’ (19-2 overall) second-place finish was Quilcene’s highest-ever finish in fastpitch softball. The Rangers won a state championship in slowpitch softball in 1988.
Thompson pointed out that seniors Jones, Kieffer and Bailey have collected a total of nine state trophies since the eighth grade in volleyball and softball.
Pomeroy 5, Quilcene 4, 10 innings
Pomeroy 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 — 5
Quilcene 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 — 4
Hitting
Quilcene — Gray 2-4, 3 RBIs; Kieffer 2-4; Bailey 1-5, 2B; Coffey 1-4; Jones 1-5; Macedo 1-5.
