Mead outlasts University

Sometimes it’s a dinger. Sometimes it’s a bunt. And sometimes it’s both.

The Mead Panthers used both — and four-hit pitching from Kim Watson — to stop University 3-2 at Whitworth College and win the District 8 4A girls softball title.

In Tuesday’s first game, Central Valley’s Whitney McDaniel yielded only a seventh-inning single in pitching the Bears past Lewis and Clark, 6-0.

CV’s win earned the District 8 No. 3 seed in the Eastern Regionals, which start Friday at Franklin Park. The Bears (13-9) will face Pasco (19-3) at 8 p.m. Lewis and Clark (14-9), the No. 4 seed will face top Big Nine seed Richland (21-1) at 6 p.m.

University (19-3), the defending state champion, will face Kennewick (13-10) at 6 p.m. as the No. 2 seed, while Mead (20-1-1) gets Kamiakin (11-11) at 8 p.m.

Going into the bottom of the sixth inning, Mead looked anything like the regular season Greater Spokane League champ, trailing 2-0 and having managed just one hit off the Titans’ Molly Owen (10-2).

Then Megan Bertolero, a junior, got into a 3-1 pitch and drove it over the left-center field wall. It was her first home run and it lit a fire.

“That was the little spark that got us going,” Mead coach John Barrington said. “This was really the first time all year we had been down, and I told the girls in the huddle this would be a good lesson going into (regionals) on how we would respond.”

Tiffany Wilkinson, the No. 7 hitter, followed with a single, but, when she was caught trying to steal third an out later, it was the third rally squelched when a Panther was caught trying to take an extra base.

“We’ve been aggressive on the bases all year,” Barrington said. And it wouldn’t stop in the bottom of the sixth.

Chantal Hughes-Gardner walked and Halley Cey was hit by a pitch trying to bunt. No. 3 hitter Lacey Parry laid down a bunt which first baseman Christine Keeton couldn’t field cleanly, and the bases were loaded.

Watson drove in the tying run with a ground out to short — Hughes-Gardner getting a great jump off third — and Megan Foster walked. Bertolero forced Cey at the plate, leaving two out and the bases loaded for Wilkinson.

“Yes I was nervous,” said the senior, who was nursing an aching tooth following a visit to the dentist earlier in the day. “Bases loaded, two outs, who wouldn’t be?”

Yet she drove the first pitch to center, scoring Parry and giving the Panthers the lead. When Watson (20-1) went out and threw a perfect seventh, Mead also had the district title.

Angie Boardman had put U-Hi on the board first when she floated a third-inning double over Bertolero’s head, and the Mead right fielder fumbled the ball enough times for Boardman to circle the bases. Christine Keeton doubled to lead off the fourth, and eventually scored on a Watson wild pitch.

But that was all the potent U-Hi offense would get against Watson.

The Lewis and Clark offense got even less against McDaniel (10-5), a sophomore right-hander.

Kristin Rhodes got the lone hit, a looping line drive over shortstop Katee Nauert to open the seventh. But this one-hitter was also the product of excellent CV defense.

Left fielder Nicole Ridle made two running catches to deprive pitcher Katie Wilmoth (13-9) of extra bases and Rian Stiles taking a hit away with a runner on second base in the third.

“Everyone has stepped it up a notch lately,” Bears coach Jeff VanHorne said. “Today it was Nicole’s turn to shine.

“We have played our best three games of the year the last three, which is the right time to step it up.”

The Bears stepped up at the plate basically in one inning, the third. Freshman catcher Mickenzie Alden started the rally by blasting Wilmoth’s first pitch down the third base line and into the corner for a triple.

Stiles drove her in with a single and two batters later Carolanne Ingalls drove in two more with another single. By the time CV was done, it was 5-0 and the Bears were well on their way to their third consecutive win.

Alden also had a hand in the Bears’ final run, when she singled to right to score Nikki Connors in the sixth.

“We’ve been the underdog this entire tournament,” VanHorne said. “It won’t be any different this weekend. The girls like it.”