Mistakes costly as Shadle Park girls finish fourth

TACOMA – When you get to the final four of the State 4A softball tournament, a mistake or two can be the difference between first and fourth place.

As evidence we present Shadle Park’s Saturday at SERA Fields.

The Highlanders opened the day by making two mistakes covering first-inning bunts in their 2-1 semifinal loss to eventual champion Woodinville. They then made two mistakes throwing and catching, one in the first inning and one in the seventh, in their 2-0 loss tournament-ending loss to Tacoma’ Wilson High.

In between, Shadle Park took advantage of University’s mistakes, eliminating the Titans from trophy contention 6-1 in a loser-out game. Despite the loss, Shadle earned only the third state fastpitch trophy ever by a Greater Spokane League school.

U-Hi had set up the season’s fourth matchup with the Highlanders by defeating North Kitsap 2-0 in an earlier consolation bracket game.

The loss to Woodinville, coming as it did with the Highlanders still harboring state title hopes, was a tough one for Shadle to take.

“It’s always tough to recover as a team after a loss,” said Shadle coach George Lynn, “and I’m not sure we ever did. In the U-Hi game we played well but we’ve played a lot better. And then the Wilson game … I can’t say our focus was gone but the ultimate goal of winning state was not there anymore.”

It left in the first inning against unbeaten Woodinville.

Mollie Greenup laced Stephanie Trudeau’s third pitch to left, collecting the first hit off the senior in the tournament. Amanda Fleischman would immediately get the second, when she pushed her sacrifice bunt past charging first baseman Sam Skillingstad and into a hole vacated by second baseman China Frost.

First and third and, one pitch later, second and third as the Highlanders let Fleischman steal second.

But Trudeau hasn’t been one of the GSL’s top pitchers for three years because she folds. Reaching back, she got something extra on her rise and struck out Dani Weir and 6-foot-1 right fielder Danielle Everett. Then she blew the first pitch past Caitlin Walker. So Falcons’ coach Jim Weir called time to talk with Walker.

“We knew what was coming and we thought we had it covered,” Lynn said.

It was another push bunt and Walker got it just past Skillingstad, easily scoring Greenup. Frost, headed to cover first, slammed on the brakes and knocked it down. But in her haste to get Fleischman at home, she dropped the ball and it was 2-0 Woodinville.

And that was all junior right-hander Lindsay Boughton needed to raise her record to 19-0. Shadle threatened twice, but only scored in the fourth.

Meanwhile, U-Hi was setting up another meeting by scoring twice in the first inning against North Kitsap. The big blow was Theresa Tviet’s single that plated Tonya Schnibbe and Angie Boardman.

From there Linse Vlahovich raised her record to 21-4 by leaving runners stranded in every inning except the first and fifth.

Both teams looked a little worn down but it was U-Hi’s defense that let down. Shadle scored twice in the second without a hit thanks to a walk and three errors by the left side of U-Hi’s infield.

When the Highlanders put together a walk and four consecutive hits to score three more times in the fifth, they ensured improving Skillingstad’s freshman pitching record to 13-2 and ending U-Hi’s year at 24-5 .

“We rode the ride as long as we could,” U-Hi coach Jon Schuh said. “It was a great run. When the season began, we had a lot of question marks. All of those got answered, especially by the seniors, who were wonderful. To be successful, you’ve got to have that senior leadership, and we did.”

Shadle (26-4) may have gotten the third-place hardware if not for a couple of careless plays.

Heather Minitti hit Trudeau’s third pitch to left – déjÀ vu – and stole second before being bunted to third. But Trudeau got Amanda Pulley to pop to third and Stacey Lien to hit a routine one-hopper to shortstop Brittany McNeal.

McNeal, who had played flawless defense up to that point, threw high to first and Skillingstad couldn’t come down with it, handing the visiting Rams (25-3) their first run.

It was almost their last as well, as Trudeau wiggled out of one-on, no out situations in the fourth, fifth and sixth. But you can tempt fate only so long, so when Wilson put runners on second and third with two out and Minitti – the Tacoma News Tribune’s Player of the Year – at the plate, Lynn decided to walk her.

But the second wide one was a little too wide and got past Randi Sandifer. She hopped on it quickly, however, and her throw to Trudeau beat pinch runner Nicole Olsen. But Trudeau couldn’t get the handle and Olsen slid in safely.

“All year long our defense has never let us down,” Lynn said. “Today, I guess, our time was up.”