Softball: CV tops University in 4A district championship

Central Valley and University coaches Joe Stanton and Jon Schuh agreed they had nothing to lose when squaring off in the District 8 4A championship softball game.

Both teams were already assured a berth in next weekend’s regional playoffs which will be hosted by University.

CV, however, had plenty to gain after having lost to U-Hi twice during the regular season.

With their battery doing the battering, the Bears turned the tables with a 6-3 victory over their error-prone rivals to claim the title and prompt Stanton to tell his players afterwards: “You’re the best 14-7 team in the state.”

Make that 15-7.

In the past week the Bears have jelled, Stanton said. “The difference was we came through in clutch moments when we needed to. In the fifth, sixth and seventh we seized the moment.”

Pitcher Kelsey Gumm and catcher Maci Reynolds drove in four of Central Valley’s six runs in the sixth and seventh innings for a 6-1 lead.

Gumm helped her cause by roping an opposite-field home run over the right-field fence to provide a cushion.

Her batterymate put the game away with a clutch two-run triple before being driven in by Gumm during CV’s five-hit seventh inning.

“You know, she was hitting the corner and I saw all those outfielders were playing close,” Reynolds said, “so I said, why don’t I drive it that way and see what happens?”

The Titans struck first taking a 1-0 lead on Gracee Dwyer’s single in the third. Scoreless for the first four innings, the Bears parlayed a couple of errors into a 2-1 lead in the fifth before the pitcher and catcher put it away.

Gumm induced pop fly after pop fly, including a towering foul ball that Reynolds hauled in just shy of hitting the backstop.

U-Hi scored a couple runs and had two runners on in the seventh to provide a ray of hope, but one last popup, to second base, extinguished it.

“I was just trying to move (the ball) around a lot keep it up and down,” Gumm said. “We just knew their team better and had a better understanding of what to do.”

But, she allowed, it wasn’t her best day. Her rise wasn’t working as she’d have liked and her change was a little off early. Still, it was here rise ball and curves that resulted in those pop flies.

“We can’t make that many mistakes in the infield,” said Schuh of the errors that bit his 17-4 freshman- and sophomore-laden team. “You make defensive plays, they’re rally killers. We didn’t do that. And Kelsey kept us off-balance. Fortunate for us, this wasn’t a season-ender.”

Mead 1, Gonzaga Prep 0: The Panthers gave themselves a chance to join CV and U-Hi in the regional tournament, winning a game where the single run was enough.

They’ll travel to the Mid-Columbia Conference No. 2 for a loser-out game.

Meredith Clark singled with one out in the fourth inning, advanced and scored on errors for the game’s only run. The Bullpups had a chance to tie in the fifth, but a force out then a throw out on an attempted steal ended their threat.

Prep had three hits against pitcher Mikaylie King, two by Maddy DeMarco. Mead finished with four hits, two by Meredith Clark.

“One thing about this team, we’ve done it all year defensively, I don’t think they get fazed,” Mead coach Steve Bagdon said.