Shadle Park, University, Mead advance to state
RICHLAND – Going into this weekend’s 4A East Region softball tournament, the coaches of the Greater Spokane League teams thought they could get at least three teams to the WIAA State Tournament.
They were right.
It’s just who’s coming along from the Big Nine Conference that’s the surprise.
Shadle Park handed the top-ranked Richland Bombers – and ace Stacey Ellingsworth – their first loss of the year, 4-0 in a winner-to-state game to open Saturday’s play at the Columbia Playfields. The Highlanders will face North Kitsap at 11 a.m. Friday to open the 4A State tournament at SERA Fields in Tacoma.
Two games later, Mead picked up the GSL’s third berth by ending the Bombers’ season 2-1 in a loser-out game. The Panthers open at 11 a.m. against Wilson (Tacoma).
The other GSL team to qualify for next weekend’s 16-team state tournament in Tacoma was District 8 champion University, which earned the berth with a 1-0 opening-day win over the lone Big Nine team to move on, the Southridge Suns. It is the Titans’ 10th consecutive trip to state, and they’ll open it at 1 p.m Friday against Decatur.
Shadle earned revenge for its district final loss to U-Hi last week, winning the regional championship, 2-1 on Stephanie McVay’s bases-loaded single in the bottom of the seventh. Meanwhile Mead, playing nearly its entire roster, lost to Southridge 14-6 in the game for third and fourth seeds to state.
Mt. Spokane was eliminated in its first game Saturday, losing 5-4 to Walla Walla.
Richland and Ellingsworth, the junior who threw every inning for the Bombers, entered the regional 23-0, then no-hit Mt. Spokane on Friday night. But it was a different story on a 92-degree Saturday.
Sam Skillingstad, Shadle’s freshman right-hander who has yielded just four earned runs all year, limited Richland (24-2) to a two-out first-inning single and Ellingsworth’s fifth-inning single to left.
That latter hit, which followed a leadoff walk to Holly Morris, gave the Bombers their best chance to score. But trailing 2-0, they couldn’t touch Skillingstad, who struck out two, sandwiched around a pop-up to short, to get out of the jam.
“For Sam, that was the best game she’s thrown all year,” Shadle Park coach George Lynn said, “though she’s thrown better. It’s her best game because nothing meant as much as this one.”
The win meant the Highlanders (23-2) are headed to State for the first time since 2001. It also meant they had found their hitting stroke.
“The last couple games we haven’t put together our best hitting game,” Lynn said. “I’ve been waiting for us to get out of our funk.”
It may have been a third-inning at-bat by freshman China Frost that ended the funk, an at-bat that finished with a pop-up to short. But Frost, hitting ninth, fouled off seven two-strike pitches, saw 10 tosses and showed the other Highlanders the way to attack Ellingsworth.
“That was the most remarkable at-bat I’ve seen all year,” Lynn said.
The next inning Randi Sandifer doubled to left with one out, McVay singled her to third, then Skillingstad squeezed Sandifer home. An out later Stephanie Trudeau singled in McVay.
The Highlanders, who finished with nine hits including two apiece from McVay and Trudeau, put it away with two more in the seventh, with sisters Brittany and Natalie McNeal each delivering RBI singles.
U-Hi’s ticket to state was punched by pitcher Linse Vlahovich, who retired the first 19 Southridge hitters. With one out in the seventh, Jessica Kahl beat out a bunt, before being hung out to dry between first and second on a botched steal attempt. Vlahovich then yielded another single and a walk before a fly out ended it.
“Linse threw much better than she did Friday (a 7-2 win over Pasco),” University coach Jon Schuh said. “She had velocity and movement and, when she has those two things, she can pitch with anyone in the state.”
The Titans (21-3) scored the only run Vlahovich needed with two out in the first, when Angie Boardman doubled and stole third. Ashley Fargher walked and never stopped, rounding first and heading for second. When the Suns made a play on Fargher, Boardman came home.
“We need to find our offense,” Schuh said, but that didn’t happen in the regional championship against Trudeau and Skillingstad, who limited the Titans to four hits.
That performance was on the same field where Mead (21-6) earned the state bid against Richland, despite the fourth-inning loss of first baseman Ashley Hovis, who was taken away by ambulance after a case of heat exhaustion. Hovis was OK, however, and returned to watch Mead’s final game.
The Panthers scored their two runs in the second when Megan Foster led off with an infield single. Katie Kine’s sacrifice bunt turned into runners on second and third when Richland threw the ball into right field. Kati Bronson brought both home with a soft liner to right field and Kim Watson made it stand up.
“We lost a lot of people off last year’s team,” the senior said, “but we gained a lot of new peo-ple and they stepped up this weekend.”
One of those new people was centerfielder Megan Thigpen, a junior in her first year playing softball. With two outs in the bottom of the fifth, Thigpen fired a strike to Foster to nail Megan Fowler at the plate, killing a Bomber rally. Richland also had a rally-killing base-running error in the sixth when it scored its lone run, with a runner thrown out easily at second.
Mt. Spokane’s season ended at 17-8 despite scoring four runs in the top of the seventh on two-run singles by Jenn Andrews and Katie Stokes. But Walla Walla’s Steph Klundt singled in two in the bottom of the inning to win it.