‘Jacks win while Tigers fall

BUHL, Idaho – Senior Whitney Ordonez struck out 16 and allowed two hits Thursday to stop Timberlake 5-0 in the opening round of the State 3A softball tournament at Buhl High School.

Earlier, St. Maries came up with two runs in the eighth inning and held on to defeat Teton 5-4 in their first-round game.

In other games, Middleton defeated Marsh Valley 3-1 and Bear Lake topped Payette 9-3.

In today’s games, Timberlake will play Marsh Valley and Teton will play Payette in 10 a.m. loser-out games. Buhl plays Middleton and St. Maries takes on Bear Lake at noon in the winners’ bracket. There will two more games at 3 p.m. and 5.

Buhl head coach Steve Ordonez was impressed by his daughter in the win over Timberlake.

“She’s struck out more in a game,” Ordonez said. “But doing that against state competition is impressive. That’s a good team over there.”

Timberlake head coach Mike Menti would agree. But that makes his team’s performance at the plate all the more disappointing for the Tigers (22-4).

“She had us,” Menti said. “We swung at bad pitches and looked at good ones.”

The result was Ordonez got ahead early in the count during 12 of her 16 strikeouts. Her varsity career best was 18 strikeouts against conference rival Kimberly two years ago.

It looked good for Timberlake after senior leadoff hitter Katrina Galloway opened the bottom of the first with a single, eventually advancing to second on Buhl’s lone error.

But Ordonez reeled off eight consecutive strikeouts to cruise through the first three innings.

Meanwhile, Buhl (19-5) built a 3-0 lead.

Buhl’s first run, the eventual game-winner, was scored on an error. Miranda Juker clubbed a double into the right-center field gap to start the second, followed by a Jamie Van Patten single.

After a strikeout by Tigers pitcher Kala Allred, the throw back to the pitcher’s circle ended up in the outfield, allowing Juker to trot home and Van Patten to reach third base.

Catcher Cassie Tipton followed with a sacrifice fly to make it 2-0.

Buhl made it 3-0 after No. 9 batter, Abbe Reynolds, reached on an infield throwing error to start the third. Two strikeouts later, Heather Scovel hit a long fly ball that the Tigers’ left fielder lost in the sun to score Reynolds.

Buhl added two runs in the top of the seventh after Timberlake’s fourth error and a single set up a two-run single by senior Andi Hulse. The Tigers’ fifth error helped load the bases, but Allred came up with two outs, including a strikeout to keep the game from getting out of hand.

“We had a chance to keep it close, but those errors hurt us,” Menti said. “Our pitcher threw well, but we didn’t give her a lot of support out there.”

Still, things are far from over in a double-elimination tournament.

“We have a chance to come back,” Menti said. “We’ll see if we can battle through. We might see (Ordonez) again.”

If that does happen, coach Ordonez expects his daughter won’t be as dominant.

“They’ll be better if we meet again,” he said.

St. Maries 5, Teton 4 (8)

The Lumberjacks defeated Teton despite blowing a 3-0 lead in the sixth.

Lumberjacks senior Betsy Bentcik had only allowed one hit when Teton knotted the score at 3.

“We have a history of problems in the sixth inning,” said St. Maries coach Cory Stapleton. “I don’t know if it is a mental letdown or what.”

Teton senior and leadoff batter Ashley Greene hit an infield single, followed by a line drive up the middle by catcher Tiffany Dewey.

Cassie Cooke hit a shot to right that hopped past the right fielder for an error, scoring Greene. April Price drove a liner to left that scored Dewey. Kimber Calderwood hit a pitch back to Bentcik and was thrown out at first as Price scampered home, tying the score. Bentcik worked her way out of trouble with a strikeout and fly out.

Teton came up one run short in its half of the eighth after St. Maries scored two runs. Kristi Smith scored on an errant throw from third and Erika Lehman was walked home. Smith started the inning at second under international tiebreaker rules.

“We had our chances,” said Teton coach Richard Berry. “We had good hitters who had been hitting the ball coming up at the right times, but we just missed the opportunities to score. We just made some mistakes that you just can’t make at this level.”

Teton pitcher Amanda Nethercott had eight strikeouts and two walks. Bentcik had four strikeouts and a pair of walks.

Kelsi Lee was 3 for 4 with three singles, and Lehman and Rachelle Solom were both 2 for 4 with an RBI for St. Maries.