LACEY — Port Angeles is in the West Central District 3 title game after fending off Olympic 14-8 in the district semifinals Saturday.
The Riders played another Olympic League 2A Division foe, North Kitsap, in the championship game on Saturday night. Results of that game were not known before press deadline. For results, check www.peninsuladailynews.com.
Earlier on Friday, the Riders were nearly flawless in clinching their sixth straight trip to the 2A state tournament, dispatching the youthful Steilacoom Sentinels 11-0 in five innings at the Class 2A West Central District Tournament at the Regional Athletic Complex on Friday.
The Roughriders (19-3) moved a few of their chess pieces around defensively and swapped some spots in the batting order. It all worked.
“We were trying to get our best defense out there,” coach Randy Steinman said. “And some girls have been making some great strides in practice and it paid off well.
“The girls came ready to play.”
Port Angeles pounded out 10 hits in the abbreviated contest, led by two extra-base hits from Olympic League 2A Division MVP Natalie Steinman.
Steinman hit a ground-scorching triple to the wall in right field to bring in Sierra Robinson in the first inning and got a little luck in her next at-bat.
Steinman spanked another worm burner, this time up the middle, that took a sky hop at the junction of the artificial turf infield and natural grass outfield.
The ball cleared the incoming Sentinels center fielder, and cleared the bases with Steinman coming home with a rarity: an inside-the-park grand-slam home run.
Natalie Steinman said she witnessed the ball take the big bounce while she rounded the bases.
“I saw that thing go right off the lip and up and go way over her head and I was like, ‘I’m going four [home].”
Steinman said she was glad to see her dad and coach giving her the go sign to take home plate when she headed past third base.
“He was sending me, sometimes I run through his stop sign, but we were both thinking go for it.”
Randy Steinman said he has seen similar bounces. In fact he and the Riders coaching staff instruct their players on how to defend that area of the field.
“Every once in a while you see one of those big lips when folks don’t take care of their fields,” he said.
“That’s why we tell our outfielders: ‘Field the ball inside of that lip or 15 feet behind because you don’t know what kind of a bounce it’s going to take and I don’t want to see them take the ball off their chops [face].”
Senior pitcher Callie Hall also performed well, recording seven strikeouts and walking none while scattering four hits to earn the five-inning shutout.
“She pitched really well, she had a lot of two-out strikeouts,” Randy Steinman said. She’s hitting her stride right now, which is nice.”
Natalie Steinman agreed.
“She brought a lot of confidence to the plate with her pitches and did really well,” she said.
“We were practicing that — when we have two strikes on a batter we want to pull them outside so they can’t touch it.”
Port Angeles 11, Steilacoom 0
Steil. 0 0 0 0 0 — 0 4 3
PA 2 6 1 2 x — 11 10 0
WP: Hall LP: Flugga
Pitching
Port Angeles — Hall 5IP, 0R, 4H, OBB, 7K.
Hitting
Port Angeles — Steinman 2-2, 2R; BB, 3B, HR, 6 RBI; Robinson 2-2, BB, SB, 3R; Politika 2-3, 2RBI; Cargo 1-1, SF, RBI. Hall 1-1; Edwards 1-3, RBI.
Sequim goes 2-2
LACEY — The Wolves came up one win short of advancing to the State Tournament, losing Saturday afternoon to White River 11-3 to end their season.
The Wolves (10-14) needed to beat White River to have a chance at the final state slot in the consolation bracket.
“Too many mental mistakes,” said coach Tim Lusk. He said both of the games Sequim lost at the district tournament, the Wolves simply made too many mistakes.
Sequim put themselves in position for a possible chance at state by going 2-1 in three close West Central District 3 Softball Tournament contests on the opening day of play Friday.
Sequim opened with a 10-8 victory over Orting, rallying from a 3-1 deficit with a 7-run fourth inning.
That frame was highlighted by No. 9 hitter Raelyn Opdyke’s two-run triple to the center field wall which gave Sequim the lead momentarily, and a bloop single to center field by Isabelle Dennis to score Opdyke.
Orting fought back and tied the game heading to the final inning, but Opdyke and Dennis reached base and scored on a Bobbi Sparks groundout and a single by Brianna Dominguez.
Shelby Jones earned the win on the mound for Sequim, while Dennis shut down Orting in the bottom of the seventh and picked up the save.
The Wolves then opened up a 3-1 lead in a winner-to-state contest against Fife (17-3), but couldn’t hang on, falling 8-7 in eight innings.
Sequim received home runs from Jones and Jessica Dominguez, the team’s two seniors in that contest, as well as a nifty piece of heads-up defense in the late innings by right fielder Madison Nute. Nute was all over an overthrown ball to first base and threw out the runner attempting to stretch the error into an extra base at second.
Fife took advantage of a pair of errors to the first two batters in the bottom of the eighth and won via a walkoff grounder.
Sequim had a little over an hour to rest and recharge before its third game of the day, a loser-out contest against Washington.
“The second game drained us, it drained us,” Wolves coach Tim Lusk said. “But we are in districts, you have to regroup and they did.”
Sequim started slow against the Patriots, in what both Lusk and Dennis admitted has become a team trait.
“I keep telling these girls they always take forever to adjust to pitching,” Lusk said. “I challenged them to be patient and not to swing to the wall, although two of them did have some nice hits. Just hit a line drive and that’s what happens.”
Dennis was the first to heed Lusk’s advice, swatting a home run to deep left-center to put the Wolves on the board trailing 3-1 in the top of the third.
“We’ve been [starting slow] in quite a few games this year, but our team, we really never give up because we know we have the potential to do it,” Dennis said.
Washington freshman Noelani Souza opened the scoring with a 3-run homer off of Dennis in the first inning and added an RBI double off of Jones in relief to give the Patriots a 4-1 lead through four innings.
With rain beginning to fall, the Wolves put together another big inning, a five-run sixth to take a 7-4 lead.
Reserve Kylynn Stringer hit a pinch-hit RBI double to get things rolling for Sequim.
“That was her first at-bat of the tournament,” Dennis said. “It feels good to get everyone involved. Kylynn has been doing our [score]book during games, so it’s really nice to see her come in at the perfect time.”
Jayla Julmist, who took a pop fly off the top of her head against Orting, bounced back with a blast down the line to the wall in left field, narrowly missing a home run.
Julmist settled for an RBI double, and Jones gave the Wolves the lead for good with a glancing blow off the drawn-in Washington third-baseman.
“We just had to stay focused, especially when the rain started to fall,” Lusk said. “Focus on getting a good grip on the ball and focus on making the outs. And offensively, put the ball in play and make them deal with the pressure.”
Opdyke added a solo home run in the top of the seventh and Dennis added an insurance run after reaching base on a double to right-center.
Dennis finished 4 of 5 in the game.
Jones picked up the win in relief, getting out of the inning having given up a two-run single after loading the bases with no outs in the Patriots’ final at-bats. Jones was able to get Souza to chase a high fastball for a strikeout in the game’s most crucial moment.
“Shelby and Isabelle are a good combo, but Shelby is a little more suited to pitching in bad weather,” Lusk said.
Forks 10, Hoquiam 5
CENTRALIA — The Forks softball girls remained alive for a possible berth at state by beating Evergreen 1A League rival Hoquiam 10-5 at the Southwest District 4 1A Tournament on Saturday.
Forks was set to play Elma for the third place at the tournament after press deadline Saturday. The District 4 tournament sends three teams to state.
Hoquiam had beaten Forks twice earlier this season. Evergreen 1A champion and defending state champion Montesano was also playing for the District 4 championship Saturday.
Quilcene 6, Wishkah Valley 5
Quilcene 18, Naselle 3
MONTESANO — The Quilcene Rangers beat Naselle 18-3 Friday to make it to the Tri-District 1B softball championship game. The Rangers went on to beat Wishkah Valley 6-5 in the championship game Saturday.
More details will be in Sunday’s Peninsula Daily News sports.
Erin Edwards of the Port Angeles Roughriders swings against Steilacoom on Friday in the Riders 11-0 win at the West Central District 3 Tournament in Lacey. (Mark Krulish/Kitsap News Group)
