SELAH — Nizhoni Wheeler came up clutch at the plate and in the batters’ box as Port Angeles shut out Othello 1-0 and silenced slugging Sehome’s bats in a 4-0 win Friday at Carlon Park to reach the Class 2A state softball semifinals.
In nearby Yakima, Quilcene reached the 1B state fastpitch championship for the first time in school history by pulling off “a heist” in a 5-4 win in eight innings over Sunnyside Christian and taking down a perennial state powerhouse in an 8-7 win over Colton.
The Rangers faced Pomeroy for the state title late Saturday at Yakima’s Gateway Sports Complex after press deadline. Results of that game will be in Monday’s sports on on Penin suladailynews.com.
A recap of Friday’s games is below.
Port Angeles 4, Sehome 0
SELAH — After seeing the Roughriders through to the state semifinals, Wheeler admitted she was tired before Port Angeles’ quarterfinal game against the Mariners even started.
Playing in blazing sun in 80-plus degree weather will have that effect.
But fatigue and the heat didn’t seem to bother Wheeler on the mound or at the plate against Sehome (23-3).
Wheeler tossed her second complete-game shutout of the day, a four-hitter, and staked herself to a 2-0 lead with a pair of solo home runs to leadoff the bottom of the second and fourth, respectively.
“She kind of left a few pitches down the middle and I just drove them,” Wheeler said. She deposited the first homer in right-center field and the second was a deep blast to left-center with the wind blowing in.
Port Angeles’ coach Randy Steinman was enthusiastic in his praise for Wheeler.
“When she was warming up before the game I said “Nizhoni, you’re not even working hard, are you tired? And she said, ‘Yes,’ so she was done [with her long warmup], we will get you warm before the game and she sucked it up and pitched a gem.
“And that’s a good hitting team. A good hitting team. They had more home runs than we have.
“And then she gets a couple of dingers herself.”
Wheeler also got some disciplined defense from her teammates.
She gave up a leadoff walk and a double to left center to open the top of the second to put runners at second and third with no outs.
First basemen Kylee Reid came through with two smart fielding decisions. First, she went for the tag on a runner who hit a grounder down the first-base line short of the bag to keep the runner on third in check.
Then Reid charged a safety squeeze bunt attempt and picked up the out on another tag to freeze the runners at their bases.
“It really helped,” Wheeler said of the defensive effort. “I was tired from the first game.”
Steinman was pumped about Reid’s heady plays.
“Huge, huge, huge,” he said.
“That’s exactly where you want the ball to go with a runner on third. Make that tag and hold the runner.”
Port Angeles picked up insurance runs in the top of the sixth on a Lauren Lunt RBI double and a single by Natalie Steinman that caromed off the Sehome third basemen, allowing Erin Edwards to score from second, insurance on the Riders’ lead.
Steinman also was thrilled to see his team avoid having to play a third game, a back-to-back loser-0ut contest Friday night.
“That’s a big deal. The team is exhausted and it’s so much better for us to get some rest and a meal and relax,” he said.
Playing in her last games as a Rider, Wheeler was contemplative about making the semifinals.
“It’s crazy to be here with all of them,” she said of many of her teammates. “We’ve been playing together since were 10.”
Port Angeles 1, Othello 0
SELAH — Wheeler outdueled Othello’s Dominique Martinez as the Roughriders edged the defending state champion Huskies 1-0 in the opening round of the Class 2A state tournament Friday at Carlon Park.
Wheeler allowed just two hits, a walk and hit a batter, while striking out 13.
“She was wonderful,” Randy Steinman said.
The lone run came in the bottom of the fourth. Wheeler singled to open the inning and was replaced on the basepaths by sister Cheyenne Wheeler. A sacrifice bunt by Brennan Gray moved Cheyenne Wheeler to second. Ashley Howell then barreled up the ball and drove a single to center to bring in the run.
“It was high-outside and I just drove it to right-center,” Howell.
Howell said Martinez, who scattered six pitches in six innings while striking out nine, was a tough matchup.
“She threw a lot of high pitches and she had a lot of speed. You want to go after those pitches, especially with the tension here [at state]. You want to do well.”
“I think our team pulled it together and did well.”
The Riders had two bases-loaded opportunities, in the third and the fifth, but came up empty.
“We had our chances, we did,” Steinman said.
“We knew coming in we had a tough draw, Othello is the defending champions and their pitcher is one of the best in the state. We did enough to get a win.”
Howell said Wheeler was “on point with her pitches all game long.”
“I couldn’t ask to play behind a better pitcher,” she said.
Lauren Lunt helped out at catcher, gunning down two baserunners who had led off the top of the first and the fourth.
Quilcene in title game
YAKIMA — The Rangers won “two very exciting nerve-wracking games,” according to coach Mark Thompson to reach the fastpitch state championship game for the first time in school history.
Quilcene won a slowpitch title in the late 1980s before the switch to fastpitch.
Trailing 4-1 with two outs and nobody on in the bottom of the seventh, the Rangers mounted a comeback to extend their shot at a title.
“They hit Allison Jones, Erin Macedo who sprained her ankle badly in the beginning of game, got a single, and Abby Weller an RBI single,” Thompson said.
“Katie Bailey hit a monster two-run single to tie the game,” Thompson said.
“And Sydney Brown scored the winning run in the bottom of the eighth when Madison Coffey reached base on an overthrow to first. But if Madison wasn’t hustling it would have been an out.
“We stole one. It was a heist.”
Thompson said pitcher Bailey Kieffer racked up 10 strikeouts and kept his team in the game.
Quilcene 8, Colton 7
YAKIMA — Alexis Gray’s RBI single in the top of the seventh lifted the Rangers (17-1) to a win against the multiple-state champion Wildcats.
Gray went 3 for 4 with four RBI and Sydney Brown was 3 for 3 with four RBI in the win.
“Our bottom of the order did really well today,” Thompson said. “Looking at the scorebook all the filled-in bases are at the bottom.”
The Rangers needed all the contributions they could get. Quilcene trailed 3-1 after two innings and rallied back to take the lead with a five-run fourth before allowing Colton a four-run frame in their half to trail 7-6.
Quilcene tied it in the fith and after Gray’s big single, pitcher Bailey Kieffer set the Wildcats down in a 1-2-3 bottom of the seventh.
It was the Rangers’ second win in as many tries all-time against Colton.
“I don’t think many other teams have a record like that against that team,” Thompson said.
Sequim’s season ends
SELAH — The Wolves’ season came to a close with an 8-4 loss to Eatonville on Friday in the 2A state tournament at Carlon Park.
“We couldn’t get the hits today and I think we left [pitcher] Shelby [Jones] in there for one too many innings,” Sequim coach Tim Lusk said.
“I’ve worked with the seniors for three years and they will be tough to replace. We had some sophomores step up and do the job, so we will be back at it next year,” he said.”
“The growth we showed from the beginning of the season to now was really fun to be a part of. We were playing our best at districts and in spots here at state.”
Sequim (14-12) held an early 1-0 lead when Chloie Sparks led off with a double off the wall in center field.
Two batters later, Adrienne Haggerty smashed adouble to the right center gap to score Sparks.
Eatonville took the lead by scoring four runs on just two hits in the top of the fourth, taking advantage of two errors in the infield and a wild pitch.
“You can’t give a good team extra opportunities,” Lusk said. “They will make you pay.”
The Cruisers padded their lead when Kyle Koszykowski hit a three-run home run in the top of the sixth to go up 8-2.
Isabelle Dennis had a two-run single with the bases loaded in Sequim’s final at-bats in the bottom of the seventh, but the Wolves could come no closer.
Mountlake Terrace 5, Sequim 2
SELAH — The Wolves were a few plays away from victory in an opening-round loss to the Hawks on Friday.
Sequim’s Chloie Sparks and Shelby Jones both doubled with two outs in the top of the second and third, respectively, but couldn’t put together two-out rallies to score a run in either frame.
“We weren’t able to get those clutch hits when we needed,” coach Tim Lusk said.
Jones pitched well, scattering 10 hits, but served up a high meatball to Jazz Zenks in the bottom of the third that Jenks deposited beyond the left-field fence for a two-run home run and a 3-0 lead.
“Shelby pitched a really good game, she only gave up one bad pitch,” Lusk said.
The Wolves trimmed Mountlake Terrace’s lead to 4-2 in the top of the fourth.
Jordan Bentz and Adrienne Haggerty drew walks to open the inning and Bentz scored when Isabelle Dennis reached on an error on a throw to first base.
Raelynn Opdyke then blooped a single just past second base to bring in Haggerty.
Haggerty singled and stole second in the sixth and Dennis walked, but the Hawks recorded three quick outs to shut down Sequim’s best chance.
The Wolves play Eatonville in a loser-out contest later this afternoon.
Chimacum loses two
RICHLAND — The Cowboys battled back and forth in a slugfest with College Place before falling 16-12 to open the Class 1A state tournament and fell 5-3 to South Whidbey and were eliminated.
It was Chimacum’s third straight trip to state.
The Cowboys finished 12-6.
