Purser’s blast leads Mt. Spokane
Jackie Purser has been Mt. Spokane High’s money player all year. Thursday at Whitworth College, she cashed in once again.
“Someone told me to watch for the first pitch,” the senior catcher said. “It just happened to be the money pitch.”
And give Purser credit, she didn’t miss it, lining the high fastball over the centerfield fence 210 feet away.
The two-run dinger started the Wildcats toward a 3-1 win over Central Valley in District 8 loser-out play and helped lift her school into regional play for the first time.
“That’s history right there,” Mt. Spokane coach Carl Adams said of the win. “Getting an early lead was big and Jackie knew it. She’s been our leader all year and she got it done again.”
Mt. Spokane’s district rival, Mead High, rode the right arm of their leader, senior pitcher Kim Watson, and hits from some unexpected sources to a 10-2 win over Gonzaga Prep in the day’s first game. The win put the Panthers (18-3) into regional play for the second consecutive year. Prep finishes the year 12-9.
The Mead duo, along with Greater Spokane League champ Shadle Park and runner-up University begin the seeding aspect of district play today at Whitworth, with the Titans (17-2) facing Mead at 3 p.m. and Mt. Spokane (17-4) taking on the Highlanders (19-1) at 5 p.m.
To get into today’s round, the Wildcats used a formula that’s worked for them all year: timely hitting and strong defense behind Kristina DeMello (13-4).
DeMello went the distance, yielding four hits, two of those in the seventh when CV (13-8) put runners on second and third with one out. But with the tying run 120 feet away, the Mt. Spokane infield met in the circle before emerging with a positive attitude.
“They thought they had the upper hand,” Purser said, “but we knew they were at the bottom of the lineup, so we felt we had the upper hand.”
She was right as DeMello got the last two hitters on two pitches and Mt. Spokane had reached regionals.
Mead was there last year, en route to the state tournament. But a new season meant changes and the Panthers are still searching for a defensive identity.
“We made about three errors a game in league,” said Mead coach John Barrington after his team made the same number against Prep. “We need to improve because you usually can’t get away with it in playoff games.”
Mead was able to get away with it Thursday because Watson (18-3) came through with big pitches – and eight strikeouts – when she needed to. And the bottom of the Mead lineup came through period.
No. 7 hitter Ashley Hovis had two hits, an RBI and scored three times. No. 8 hitter Erin Norris added two more hits and three RBIs. And Megan Thigpen, the ninth hitter in the lineup, chipped in another hit and an RBI.
The heart of Mead’s lineup – second baseman Katie Kine, Watson and catcher Megan Foster – had one hit between them.
“If you had told me that before the game, I would have figured it was a 2-1 or 3-2 game,” Barrington said. “But we made contact, put the ball in play and surprised them a little.”
There will be no surprises today. Mead and U-Hi split two games this season, each winning on the other’s field.
“We have to step up against U-Hi,” Barrington said. “We haven’t played our best game against them yet. We really want to find a way to win one of the next two so we get a better seed (into regionals).”
Mt. Spokane and Shadle also split this season, the early season loss the only one the Highlanders suffered. But Shadle won the rematch when freshman Sam Skillingstad tossed a perfect game with 16 strikeouts.
“We were a little disappointed that second game,” Purser said. “We played flat. I think we’ll have more fire this time.”