BNSF captures 16U SVGSA championship

The top two regular season finishers, in all but one instance, reached the title games when Spokane Valley Girls Softball Association completed its season with last week’s championship tournaments.

Three of the four tourney titles needed two games to be decided.

Regular season champion BNSF captured the 16U League championship. Second-place finisher Arby’s knocked off season unbeaten Spokane Transfer in the 14U title doubleheader.

Towey Ecological and McCoy’s Pitching Staff, perfect during the 12U season, took turns beating each other with Towey winning two of three for the title. And in the 10U tournament, regular season champion U.S. Zinc bounced back from a semifinal loss to beat McCoy’s Pitching twice for that championship.

•Teams in the 16U tournament played a round-robin pool to determine seeding for the four-team single-elimination championship bracket. BNSF, which completed a 14-0 season, defeated Einstein’s Car Wash for the title after going 4-0 in pool play.

Included was a 6-0 win over pool runnerup Home Run Construction which couldn’t play on Sunday for religious reasons.

BNSF’s Brietta Buechler homered in two of its pool wins, one a three-run blow.

Also during pool play, Home Run Construction’s Danica Hanley hit a triple and home run and drove in five runs during two wins, while Bailey Riggin had three hits and three RBIs in a third pool triumph.

Einstein’s pitcher Ashley McCarty pitched a seven-inning shutout and struck out nine. Heather Taes, Tatiana Eldore and Austin Henry had two hits each and Teale Cresswell made two big defensive plays.

•Spokane Transfer reached the finals of the 14U tournament unbeaten with a 14-12 win over Arby’s to improve its season record to 13-0 before Arby’s handed them two straight losses.

Arby’s won three straight, including 4-3 and 15-10 over Transfer for the championship and a 14-2 season record.

In the title win, Meagan Steilen tripled and Emily Ness doubled.

Earlier in the tournament Ness tripled and Hannah Bailey doubled in one win, Elysa Doss had two his and Steilen doubled in another. Steilen added a triple and Bailey a home run in a 21-12 win over BNSF that put them in the championship doubleheader.

During its three wins to reach the finals, Spokane Transfer needed three eight-inning runs to beat Greenacres Gypsum, Hailey Wesselman with the game-winning single. Shelby Harbison and Hailee Toles allowed but one run and three hits in the second victory, while Wesselman hit a two-run triple and Harbison doubled in the semis against Arby’s.

Other highlights: Jessie Levno of Dairy Queen went 3-for-4 and had five RBIs in one game, Kelsey Bergland went 2-for-4 with a triple in another.

•Towey Ecological and McCoy’s Pitching both ran their season records to 12-0 before meeting for the first time in the 12U League. And when they faced off three times, not a whole lot separated them.

Towey reached the finals first with a 5-3 victory, Jessica Mitchell and Bailey Towey combining for 14 strikeouts. When they met again Sunday for the title, they divided 5-4 outcomes. Towey Ecological finished the season 14-1, McCoy’s Pitching wound up 14-2.

Earlier in the tournament Towey singled and tripled and in two wins totaled 15 strikeouts in six innings. Rachel Johnston hit a two-run triple in one of the games and Bailey Castor hit two singles and drove in three runs in another.

Team members on the champs are Towey, Mitchell, Johnston, Castor, Jenna Trinkle, Kayla Cook, Ashley Beal, Gabi Whitt, Megan Fouts, Danielle Gregor and Brenna Francisco. Craig Johnston, Ken Mitchell and Bill Towey are coaches.

Other highlights: Hanna Wesselman hit a two-run double for Old Country Buffet in one game and combined with Bailey Osborne for two double plays in another. Pitchers Emily Walzer and Mikayla Jares combined for 11 strikeouts in a third.

•U.S. Zinc (which finished the season 14-2) was beaten 13-3 by McCoy’s pitching in the semifinals of the 10U tournament. But when they faced off again for the title after U.S. Zinc won 18-9 over Old Country Buffet, the champions won 6-2 and 6-3 games. McCoy’s finished the season 11-4.

Tourney highlights: Kristen Birdsill hit a three-run double for BNSF and Skylar Bastin of Conley’s hit a grand slam home run.

State Legion today

Three Spokane Valley baseball teams begin their state American Legion Junior title quest today.

At University, host team Kimmel Athletic, with six members from the Titans state qualifying high school team, completes the first day’s four games against Mount Rainier following a 2:30 p.m. between Centralia and Ferndale.

Freeman, with seven Scotties and players from Reardan and Lewis and Clark, completes the morning session against Mt. Vernon following the 9 a.m. game between Richland and Central Kitsap.

At Central Valley, young host Spokane Athletic Supply, made up of players from CV’s freshmen (8) and junior varsity (9) teams, completes the first day’s schedule against Pacific Tech.

Tournament continues through Monday to determine the respective divisional champions. The state title game is at U-Hi, 11 a.m. Tuesday.

•The Bandits defeated the Northstars in the championship of the Senior Division V tournament 9-5 for top seed as both advance to their state tournament in Yakima beginning Saturday. U-Hi’s Billy Moon had two hits and he and Titan teammate Danny Jordan both doubled.