NEA rivals reach 1A semifinals

Lakeside and Colville remain on a collision course at the State 1A fastpitch softball tournament, but they have one more sizable obstacle to clear.

Both Northeast A squads won twice Friday to move into the semifinals. Colville drubbed Zillah 17-0 and edged defending champion Castle Rock 2-1 at Franklin Park. Lakeside survived a shaky start and lengthy rain delay to thump 2008-09 champ Montesano 8-1 before handling Cle Elum/Roslyn 13-2.

Colville (23-5) faces Connell and Lakeside (23-2) meets Onalaska at 11 this morning as the tournament moves to Merkel Sports Complex.

Colville 2, Castle Rock 1: Castle Rock junior Maddisen Klingberg homered in the top of the seventh to tie the score, but the Indians pushed across the winning run with two outs in the bottom of the frame.

Jammie Madonna singled after a nine-pitch at bat and Taylor Kellum singled with two outs. With runners at second and third, left-handed hitting Heather Bishop slapped a grounder to shortstop and beat out the throw, scoring pinch-runner Sadie Learn.

“Heather was just too fast and Sadie did a great job running the bases,” Colville coach Mandy Sumner said. “A huge team effort. We’re riding the wave right now.”

Colville 17, Zillah 0: The Indians scored five runs in the first to trigger their run-rule shortened rout of Zillah. After Madonna, who bats seventh in the order, stroked a double, the Indians had already hit for the cycle as a team. Bishop laced a leadoff triple, Erin Torgerson had the first of her four singles and Tasji Urhausen belted the first of her two home runs.

The Indians added a pair of runs in the second and wrapped it up with a 10-run fourth as Urhausen hit her second opposite-field homer.

“She has home run potential,” Sumner said. “When she’s on time she’s deadly.”

Junior pitcher Jo Rogers allowed just one hit in four innings.

“This group always comes out extremely dominant when they know they have something to prove,” Sumner said. “That level of play is what I expect from them all year long.”

Lakeside 13, Cle Elum 2: The Eagles pounded out 11 hits, including three doubles and three home runs. Kayla Sevier, Kirsten Kyllo and Hannah Tanner each hit homers. Five Eagles had two-hit games.

Lauren Gerty scored twice and drove in two runs. Emily Lesser knocked in three runs and Vanessa Ahrendt had two hits, scored two runs and tossed a four-hitter to pick up her second pitching win of the day. Lakeside scored runs in five of the first six innings.

Cle Elum lost to Castle Rock in the 2010 championship game.

Lakeside 8, Montesano 1: Montesano’s first two runners reached on bunts and moved up on a wild pitch when a heavy downpour forced a 2-hour, 40-minute delay. When play resumed, Ahrendt escaped by allowing just one Bulldog run.

“My pitcher was a little jittery,” Eagles coach Chuck Moffatt said. “She came to me (during the rain delay) and apologized and she didn’t think she’d done very well reading those bunts, but she said she was going to be fine.”

Tied at 1 in the fifth, Montesano had runners on the corners with two outs when Sydney Bullington hit a fly ball to left-center. Gerty raced over and made a sprawling catch while avoiding the center fielder to prevent two runs from scoring. The Eagles scored three runs in the fifth and four in the sixth to pull away.

Gerty and Savannah Rolston each had three hits.

“We were struggling for a bit because we were out on our front foot and we weren’t waiting for our pitches,” Moffatt said. “There have been quite a few games this year where it’s nail biter, nail biter and all of sudden our bats erupt when we’ve been through the lineup once.”