Erickson helps Bears to state
Alyssa Erickson was overwhelmed. Central Valley High School’s junior pitcher had just picked up her second successive victory after roughly four straight hours on the mound in 95-degree heat Saturday and the Bears were headed to state for only the second time as a fastpitch softball program.
They play Stadium of Tacoma Friday at Tacoma’s SERA Playfields at 11 a.m.
“It is soooo amazing,” said Erickson, her voice breaking with emotion.
Erickson and her teammates let actions speak louder than words. The young Bears had been a regional participant in each of the last three years, but this was the breakthrough.
CV beat Pasco 5-4, then after losing to Richland 7-0 in the semifinals, came back for successive wins – 1-0 over Walla Walla in eight innings and Pasco again, 4-2 – with Erickson on the mound.
“No one thought we’d come this far,” said Erickson. “This is probably the best moment in softball for me.”
Central Valley (20-7) stood fifth in the Greater Spokane League after losing back-to-back games to University April 16 and 17. Thereafter, the Bears, ripped off 10 straight wins, including twice over the Titans, to finish second, and have gone 14-2 overall. Their only losses were to the region’s top two teams, Shadle Park and Richland.
In last weekend’s tournament, CV scored four times in the fifth inning of its opener against Pasco, season hitting leader and shortstop Alexa Morales with a two-run double. Chrystal Holt had two hits.
Soft hits just out of reach by the Bombers proved costly and the Bears only had three base runners during the semifinal loss.
But against Walla Walla, Erickson, with defensive help, faced the minimum 18 batters through six innings and allowed only three base runners the entire game. Morales doubled in the top of the eighth and scored on Erickson’s single for the game winner.
Pasco scored twice on Erickson in the first inning, but not again. Stefani Siddoway opened the third with a single, Holt and catcher Becky White also had base hits and Morales drove in a pair. White scored on an outfield error. CV was headed to state.
Erickson, one of six juniors or younger in CV’s lineup, does not overpower anyone; she hit her spots and kept batters guessing.
“We started to peak at the right time,” said Morales. “The whole team stayed strong and Erickson was amazing. She never wears down and everyone has confidence in her.”
“Up and down the lineup the girls wouldn’t give up,” said coach
Jeff VanHorne
. “They wanted it too much, and came through. I couldn’t be happier for the girls.”
University (18-9) beat Walla Walla in its regional opener, but lost 6-1 to Shadle Park and 6-2 to Pasco on Saturday ending its season. Junior Ali Warren hit two doubles and a home run during the weekend.
•West Valley and Freeman also qualified for state softball in their respective classifications. The Eagles beat Clarkston 10-1 Saturday to reach the 2A tournament. Rachel Meagley had 10 strikeouts, and Hannah Begley was 4-for-4 with 3 RBIs. They play Burlington-Edison at 10 a.m. in Selah Friday.
The Scotties reached the 1A tournament with a second-place finish in Bi-District and play Cedar Park Christian, noon at Franklin Park in Spokane Friday.
Scotties in semis
For the first time in school history, Freeman’s baseball team has reached the State 1A baseball semifinals leaving coach Chad Ripke on Cloud Nine.
“It’s hard to teach class when your head is somewhere else,” he said Tuesday.
The bats were where they needed to be when the Scotties (2-1) beat Warden 11-3 and throttled No. 1-ranked Friday Harbor 18-7 last weekend. Freeman batters belted five home runs among 23 hits and were 15-for-15 in stolen bases in powering their way to the final four.
“Our bats were outstanding,” said Ripke, “and we still hit a bunch of ‘at-‘em’ balls that were just scorched and could have been even more (hits).”
Jake Sullivan was 3-for-5 with five RBIs against Warden. Chris Miller was 3-for-5 with six RBIs and Shamus Reilly 3-for-3 in the title game, Reilly batted 5-for-6 in the twin bill. All three hit homers.
On Friday, Freeman plays Rochester, 1 p.m. at Yakima County Stadium. Kalama and last year’s second-place finisher Naches Valley are in the other half of the bracket.
“It makes me proud as a coach to see the kids competing at a high level,” said Ripke. “Baseball is such a hard way to get there. There are so many single elimination games and you can’t afford a bad game. Now that we’re there we might as well win the darn thing.”
•Luck wasn’t with the other Valley qualifiers. Rusty Shellhorn was stellar for Central Valley (15-11) against defending state champion Richland, but the Bombers rallied from a 3-0 deficit to win 4-3 in the eighth inning in 4A. University (20-3) was shell-shocked 16-0 by Redmond and in 2A West Valley (17-5) managed just one hit in an 11-1 loss to finalist East Valley-Yakima.
Track list long
Every Spokane Valley school will have athletes on the road Friday and Saturday for state track. Central Valley, University and East Valley are in Pasco, West Valley and Freeman are in Tacoma, Valley Christian and Liberty in Cheney. See list of individual qualifiers.
Doubling up in tennis
The West Valley boys doubles team of Brian Bergan and Chase Baxter qualified for state and will compete Friday, 11:30 a.m. in the 2A tournament at the Nordstrom Tennis Center in Seattle.
Valley Christian has two doubles teams at 1A/2B/1B state, boys Reid Wells and Stephen Eastburn playing at 10:45 and girls Sydney Eggleston and Jessica VanGelder at 10:30 in the Yakima Tennis Center.