Trojans triumph
The Post Falls High softball team moved within a win of being a playing state host instead of a working state host.
Third-seeded Post Falls knocked off No. 2 Lake City for a second time in three days Thursday as the Trojans pulled out a 3-1 win in a 5A Region I loser-out game at LC.
The Trojans (16-11) will meet District III fifth-place finisher Mountain View of Meridian (21-7) in a play-in game Saturday at Fruitland at 1 p.m. PDT. The winner advances to state, Thursday through May 19 at Post Falls High School.
“I’d much rather be playing than working,” said Post Falls coach Jack Foster.
The elimination game was as tightly contested as the regional opener in which the Trojans prevailed 9-6 in eight innings. While it lacked offense – the teams combined for 24 hits Tuesday – it didn’t lack drama.
The Trojans can thank sophomore Blake Meredith that their season was extended at least one more game. It wasn’t a one-girl show, but it was the next closest thing.
The left-handed pitcher stymied LC (17-10) on three hits and walked one to go with nine strikeouts. With the game tied at 1 in the top of the seventh, Meredith had the key hit. She belted a towering fly to center field that came inches away from clearing the fence. The ball hit the protective yellow piping on top of the fence and stayed in play. Meredith’s double drove in two runs.
“I just know I had to get a hit to produce for the team,” said Meredith, who was hitless in three previous at-bats. “I just knew I was going to get a hit to help our team out and win. I pretty much saw it (the pitch) coming and then just turned. It just happened from there.”
Foster marveled at Meredith’s contributions.
“What can you saw about Blake?” Foster asked. “Pitching, defense – gets the big hit. I don’t know what else to tell you. She just helped herself all over the place.”
The Trojans struck first in the fourth. After back-to-back singles by Sean Topp and Lisa Steinbach, Monze Kaufman hit a run-scoring double over the left fielder’s head.
Meredith held the T-Wolves hitless through five innings, and she struck out the first two batters she faced in the sixth. But LC knotted the score at 1 when Chantal Waide singled and Jamie Hall, pinch running, scored on a triple by Bri Harbour, whose slicing, opposite-field hit down the left-field line bounded into foul territory.
In LC’s seventh, Meredith allowed her lone walk to the leadoff batter.
“You could tell she (Meredith) was just kind of vibrating after getting a big hit and everything,” Foster said of the walk.
Frequently this season, the Trojans have been the victims of their mistakes. It appeared that might be the case in the seventh. After the walk, LC’s Brittani Waide hit a grounder Post Falls shortstop Lisa Steinbach appeared to have played well. The ball caromed off her leg toward the second-base bag. Freshman Brianne Joseph alertly picked up the ball to force Lela Work, who had walked.
Then Meredith suffered a minor setback. She coaxed the next LC batter to hit a grounder to her, but Meredith’s throw toward second bounded into the outfield grass.
Moments later, LC’s Richelle Fenebock slapped a single to load the bases.
But Meredith nabbed a line drive from Jordanna Walker and third baseman Gisselle Kaufman got the final out at home after safely fielding a ball.
“I can’t ask for anything more than that,” Foster said. “(We) move up to 5A and beat the No. 2 team in the state from last year that had a lot of kids back.”
LC coach Laura Tolzmann praised her team for fighting until the end.
“We battled really hard,” Tolzmann said. “Our defense was exactly what I wanted and our pitching was exactly what we wanted. Unfortunately, we came up short with the hits and that’s what cost us.”
For LC, it was a season of unfulfilled expectations.
“We had the talent,” Tolzmann said. “(It was) just unfortunate we could never seem to put it all together this year. It kind of felt like a roller-coaster year.”