By Michael Carman
Peninsula Daily News
SELAH — There were plenty of tears after Port Angeles fell 5-1 to W.F. West (Chehalis) in the Class 2A state softball championship at Carlon Park.
Plenty of levity, too, in the form of a water balloon arsenal planted for the players by team moms and unleashed on the Roughriders coaches after their traditional post-game team breakdown.
Disappointment certainly, but not doom and gloom.
There’s a term in the bat and ball sports, “due,” where a good player mired in a hitting slump is said to be “due” to turn his/her luck around and get a hit.
The term also could be altered a bit to fit Port Angeles’ performance in its title tilt with the Bearcats.
After blistering opponents 29-2 to win the school’s first district championship last week and suffocating opposing offenses in three straight shutouts to open the state tournament on Friday and Saturday, the Riders were probably due for a dip from their usual high-caliber form.
And that slight off-kilter performance started early in the championship game Saturday.
Port Angeles’ 22-inning shutout streak ended in the bottom of the first inning when Kindra Davis’ first-inning RBI double ceded the lead to W.F. West, and Kyndra Haller’s third-inning homer gave Bearcats pitcher Lexie Strasser all she would need.
Davis’ double scored Olivia Dean, who had reached on an error on a solid shot up the middle to lead off the contest.
And Haller’s homer, a deep bomb to right-center was belt-high and grooved down the middle.
Port Angeles made some mistakes offensively: a pop fly in the infield resulted in a double play that put a stop to a potential Riders’ rally in the top of the second with two on and one out.
“Sometimes they go for you and sometimes they can go against you,” Port Angeles coach Randy Steinman said referring to the breaks of the game. “And sometimes they can be gamechangers.”
“W.F. West is a great team, always in the championship game it seems like and doing well here [at state]. But we can play with them, we play them 10 times, I think we could take five of them. But they got us today. They hit the ball better and got on us.”
The Riders scored their lone run in the top of the third. Erin Edwards led off with a triple and with two strikes and two outs Natalie Steinman singled up the middle to cut W.F. West’s lead to 2-1.
Dean answered back with a triple to open the bottom half of the inning and Haller followed with the home-run shot.
Port Angeles put two on with no outs in the sixth, but couldn’t advance the runners. And senior Taylar Clark singled to center in the seventh, but the Riders couldn’t mount the comeback.
Strasser, who will play for Central Washington University next season, held the Riders to six hits and one walk while striking out nine.
“They had a great pitcher, they backed her up defensively and they swung the bats better than we did today,” Port Angeles catcher Lauren Lunt said.
“And we kind of struggled at first. We didn’t get enough of the timely hits when we needed them.
“I agree with what coach [Steinman] said though, if we played them 10 times we’d probably win five. We were that close.”
Wheeler pitched all four games at state for the Riders, three of them dominating shutouts. She allowed five runs, four earned, on seven hits and four walks with seven strikeouts in six innings pitched against the Bearcats.
“She pitched phenomenal,” Steinman said. “To go all four games and throw like she did? I know I wouldn’t want to pitch four games in this heat.”
Port Angeles will lose Wheeler, easily the best pitcher in school history to a yet-to-be-determined college; Lunt will play softball for University of Mary in North Dakota; Clark will play softball and soccer at Hesston College in Kansas and Port Angeles also graduates outfielders Ashley Howell, who will play for Pierce College, and Nikaila Price and first baseman Kylee Reid.
“These girls have set the bar high for the girls coming up,” Steinman said of his seniors. “Now we know we can compete with the best teams in the state.
“I tell the girls after every season, it’s the journey that matters not the end result. And yes, they’ve had a hell of journey.”
W.F. West 5, Port Angeles 1
PA 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 — 1 6 1
WFW 2 0 2 0 1 0 X — 5 7 1
WP: Strasser LP: Wheeler
