Tigers come up short
Thunderstorms passed by Ramsey Park Friday, but the dark cloud that’s been hanging over Timberlake at the State 3A high school softball tournament remained.
The Tigers, first-round winners Thursday, fell 5-0 to Bear Lake in the winners’ bracket and were eliminated 7-6 by Kimberly later in the day to make it six straight years with no hardware to show for their efforts.
Earlier in the day, St. Maries rallied furiously for five runs in the final inning, but fell one run short and got knocked out by Kimberly 9-8.
In other second-day action, Bear Lake (16-6) remained the tourney’s only unbeaten team and advanced to today’s noon championship game with a 6-1 win over Middleton. Kimberly junior ace Whitney Peterson tossed a no-hitter and was one out away from a perfect game in an 11-0, five-inning win that sent Homedale (15-11) packing. Middleton advanced earlier with an 8-4 win over Homedale. In other loser-out games, Snake River (11-10) got past Teton 6-2 before being sent home by Homedale 7-5.
Kimberly (24-3) and Middleton (14-10) square off for third place this morning at 10, with the winner needing to beat Bear Lake twice for the championship.
Timberlake, which fought through some mental lapses Thursday, fell victim to more of the same. The young Tigers, who started four freshmen and a sophomore against Kimberly, outhit their opponents in both games but couldn’t get over the hump in either.
Against Bear Lake and fireballer Karen Packham, Timberlake had its best chance in the first inning, when freshman Brittany Amende led off with a walk. But on the next play, Whisper Brown’s base hit past first hit Amende in the foot, and Timberlake would eventually leave the bases loaded in the inning.
Against Kimberly, the Tigers got on the board in the top of the first but five walks and three Bulldogs hits in the first two innings put Timberlake in a hole it could never dig its way out of. Timberlake scored two in the seventh to pull within one, but struck out twice with the bases loaded to end the game.
Junior ace Kala Allred, who matched Packham with 10 strikeouts against Bear Lake, kept a stiff upper lip and looked to next season.
“Motivation level was part of it,” Allred said. “But I don’t think it was our lack of trying that lost it for us – we were coming back in that last game.
“But we’re young, and we’ll be back again – after lots of practice.”
Tigers coach Mike Menti talked about the loss to Kimberly and, mixed in with praise about his team’s overall effort this season, said that the Tigers just weren’t ready to go on defense either day.
“We got into a hole there – we tried to dig out, but couldn’t quite make it,” Menti said. “We struggled defensively, and we tried, but couldn’t dig out.
“We’re 60 feet from tying that thing up, but that’s the way the tournament went for us – we just never got in sync.”
Timberlake ends its 2006 campaign at 21-5.
St. Maries kept it close against Kimberly, holding serve 2-2 through five innings. But the Bulldogs scored seven times in the sixth and the game seemed out of reach.
That was until the Lumberjacks got one in the bottom of that inning, held Kimberly in the top of the seventh, and, helped by four Bulldogs errors, scored five times and had Paula Blumel on first with tying and nobody out. But, after two strikeouts, Blumel was picked off first and the game was over.
“It’s tough, because we had that one bad inning,” St. Maries coach Nicole Guthas said. “There were a few things that we did – mental mistakes and not making plays and getting outs, but (Kimberly was) really good that inning.
“I told the girls that I was really proud of them; that’s something we’ve struggled with all year long – trying to make a comeback.”
The Lumberjacks finish the season at 12-13.