SELAH — Port Angeles and Sequim’s time at the Class 2A state softball tournament was brief as both teams were eliminated after two defeats.
Chimacum also was bounced in the first day from the 1A tournament Friday.
Quilcene survived the first day of the 1B tournament and advanced to the third-place game Saturday.
The Roughriders opened their state slate Friday with a 15-3 loss in six innings to the W.F. West Bearcats, a team making its 12th consecutive state appearance.
In the consolation bracket, Port Angeles’ attempt at a seventh-inning rally faltered in an 8-5 loss to the Anacortes Seahawks.
Tough third outs
The Roughriders were burned by two-out rallies in both losses.
“The whole day just didn’t seem right,” coach Randy Steinman said.
“We didn’t play badly, we just didn’t play our best.”
Port Angeles allowed a run to score with two outs in the second and three more with two out in the bottom of the fourth to fall behind Anacortes 4-0.
An RBI double from Carly Gouge and an RBI single from Jaidyn Larson in the top of the fifth helped the Riders cut Anacortes’ lead to 4-2.
But an error-filled sixth inning by Port Angeles helped the Seahawks send four runners across and take an 8-2 lead.
All four of Anacortes’ runs came with two down in the sixth inning.
“I’m not going to blame the heat or anything else, but we didn’t get things going offensively and we were making too many mistakes defensively,” Steinman said.
“Their right fielder made two wonderful catches that if those fall, we score runs.
“We didn’t get a lot of breaks.”
Port Angeles’ attempt at a rally was thwarted in its last time up to bat.
Gouge and Larson doubled, and then Gouge scored on an infield single from Alicia Howell.
A two-out, two-run single from Taylar Clark brought the Riders within 8-5, but they couldn’t keep the rally alive.
“Down six runs, we could have just folded, but we ended up having the tying run at the plate in that last inning,” Steinman said.
“We were battling until the end.”
Steinman was proud of how his four seniors, Gouge, Howell, Alyssa Wetzler and Dawn Oliver, closed their careers.
“I love those seniors,” Steinman said. “All season long they contributed in so many different ways.”
Port Angeles ends the season with a 20-3 record, and the future is bright for a team loaded with freshmen and sophomores.
“We are young,” Steinman said. “We will miss the seniors, but we have a young group and a lot of good, young talent coming up.
“Next year we just have to do a better job at districts so we have better seeding at state.
W.F. West went on to win the state championship, which Steinman predicted Saturday afternoon before the semifinals had concluded.
“I think W.F. West is going to win the title,” Steinman said, “so that would be two years in a row where we opened with the eventual champion [Port Angeles lost to Lake Washington in 2014].
“So we definitely have to do better at districts.”
W.F. West of Chehalis defeated White River, a team Port Angeles beat during the regular season, in Saturday’s championship game 3-2.
The Riders were taken down by perennial power W.F. West in six innings in the first round Friday.
Port Angeles freshman Natalie Steinman hit a three-run home run in the top of the third inning to pull the Riders within 5-3, but the Bearcats answered back with two runs in the bottom half of the inning to push their lead to 7-3.
Port Angeles’ bats were silent after Steinman’s homer, but the Bearcats were just getting going.
“We went down and Natalie hit that three-run shot, and they answered by just crushing the ball all over the park,” Steinman said.
“They had three home runs, and one of them, there’s a tree beyond the fence in centerfield and it came down halfway up the tree.
“They just squared up on the ball every single time, it seemed like.”
The Bearcats pounded out 18 hits in the game.
W.F. West ended the game early on a grand slam by Ali Graham.
Sequim stopped
The Wolves went two-and-out for just the second time during their five-year streak of state appearances.
Sequim opened the tournament with a 10-0 loss to Othello and were eliminated with a 6-5 loss to Orting.
Quilcene stays alive
The Rangers dropped their fourth consecutive state-opening game to Almira-Coulee-Hartline, falling 3-2 to the Warriors.
But they bounced back and earned the right to play for their third straight state trophy.
“Base running errors and a lack of hitting with runners in scoring position did us in,” Quilcene coach Mark Thompson said of Friday’s loss to Almira-Coulee-Hartline.
“Sammy [Rae] pitched well. She struck out 12, but that’s just the way the game goes sometimes.”
The Rangers led 1-0 when Alexis Gray notched an infield hit with the bases loaded in the fifth inning.
Almira-Coulee-Hartline used small ball in its final inning at the plate, bunting the first two batters aboard in the seventh and eventually rallying for three runs.
Rae tried to spark a Quilcene rally, hitting a triple and then scoring when Katie Bailey’s shot to second base was mishandled in the seventh.
Bailey reached base on the error, but Quilcene couldn’t get the tying run across.
“I give credit to their pitcher,” Thompson said.
“She made the pitches when she needed to and we had some poor at-bats in key situations.”
The Rangers regrouped to knock off Naselle 13-4 in a loser-out game later in the afternoon.
“We hit well but we did not field well, and that made us have to stand out in the sun a lot longer,” Thompson said.
“They came out and took a 3-0 lead after the first inning, and that kind of woke us up a bit.
“They put the ball in play against us. It was smart coaching: they had their players choke up on the bat, kind of two-strike swings to get contact.
“But we scored six in the second and got things going in the right direction.”
Rae pitched a complete game and also hit a solo home run in the sixth inning.
Erin Macedo, Bailey Kieffer and Ally Speer all had multiple hits for the Rangers (18-2).
Saturday afternoon, Quilcene defeated Sunnyside Christian to secure their third state trophy in a row. The Rangers moved on to face Colton in the third-place game later Saturday.
Chimacum
The Cowboys couldn’t hang on to a late lead in their opening contest with Cle Elum-Roslyn and lost 7-4 at the 1A tournament at Columbia Playfields in Richland.
“The first inning we scored three runs,” Chimacum coach Junior Roberts said.
Bradyn Nelson and Kiersten Snyder singled and moved over on a pop fly.
“They committed an error and then the Nisbet twins [Shanya and Mechelle] came through with RBI singles,” Roberts said.
Cle Elum got runs back in the first and third innings to cut the Cowboys’ lead to 3-2.
Chimacum added another in the top of the sixth when Mechelle Nisbet walked, stole second and then dvanced to third and then scored on wild pitches.
The inning could have been even bigger for the Cowboys.
“Kyah [McKinlay] got on base with a hit, and I had her try for second on the first pitch,” Roberts said.
McKinlay was thrown out on the attempt.
“I was a little too greedy trying to get that extra run,” Roberts said.
Cle Elum-Roslyn’s rally came in the bottom of that inning.
The Warriors loaded the bases and scored three runs on a disputed play.
“We felt the batter hit the ball off her foot, but the umpire said it bounced off the plate,” Roberts said.
“The ball took a weird bounce and Ryley had to approach to the ball from a weird angle, and they scored three runs on the play.”
Chimacum couldn’t get a rally of its own going in their final time up.
The slump continued in a 10-0 season-ending loss to Deer Park.
“You have to play through it and make do with what you are dealt,” Roberts said.
“I couldn’t get the girls to respond. We were down emotionally for that second game, and it was hot, really hot.
“Emotionally, the girls were spent. We made a lot of uncharacteristic errors that second game. It wasn’t us.”
Roberts was proud of his players for coming together and making a state run after not fielding a team last season.
Another bright spot for Chimacum is the team loses just one senior, shortstop Kiersten Snyder.
Snyder was pressed into duty at catcher for the final three innings against Deer Park after starter Mechelle Nisbet exited the game due to the heat.
“Kiersten caught for us the final three innings and threw a girl out at second,” Roberts said.
“And when there were runners on base, she didn’t let a pitch past her. So, not too bad for never having played catcher.”
Roberts said he and the team will be back next season.
“We had a great year after going from not having a team to not only making it to districts, but state,” Roberts said.
“They know next year we have something to shoot for. This was a learning experience.”
