Irish Hand WP Second Loss

PASCO, Wash.--"Thwapthwap... thwap!" The sound of Irish' Ashley Lyons' glove striking her thigh--once on the wind-up, and once on the follow-through-- followed shortly by the sound of the softball striking the catcher's mitt, provided an almost constant beat to the Tigers' loss to the Irish of DeSales Friday night.

The loss marks a disappointing end to a season in which the Tigers had state playoff aspirations after finishing the regular season tied for the District 9 championship with rival Dayton. It also marked the end to a difficult afternoon, which saw Waitsburg-Prescott first struggle against Dayton in a somewhat lethargic 12-5 loss to their co-champions.

Despite the lopsided loss to the Bulldogs, W-P coach Angela Potts said her team was still hopeful going in to game two.

"The girls were still pretty confident [going into game 2]." Potts said. "The games that we split, we always won the second part of the double header. So they had that confidence going in, but DeSales hit the ball. They had the base hits when they needed them, they moved the runners around, and we just didn't do it."

The freshman pitcher Lyons almost single-handedly defeated W-P with some serious heat, striking out most of the batters she faced and only allowing three hits through the night.

"Ashley's tough, she defi- nitely locates her pitches well, she keeps the girls offbalance, and she's definitely the heart of their team." Potts said.

Lyons was not perfect for the night, as she did walk three batters in the first two innings, but once she gained control of her pitches she cruised. The Tigers were unable to score until the bottom of the fourth, when Samantha Moss finally managed to connect, sending a line drive into center field for a standup double. Moss was then able to steal home, as the De- Sales catcher tried to pick her off at second only to send the ball sailing into the outfield.

On the other hand, the Irish scored early and often. DeSales scored four runs in the first inning of play, quickly jumping on Tiger pitcher Kazmira Grende.

The Irish continued to pound Grende, though the Tigers were able to avoid giving up any more huge innings with solid fielding. After the first W-P only allowed three more runs to cross the plate, despite giving up nine more hits, including two doubles.

The Tigers were again able to touch Lyons in the fifth inning, with lead-off batter Alyssa Hafen singling to left field. Hafen's single was followed by a towering hit from junior Hailey Goenen that she turned into an inside-the-park homerun, scoring two RBIs and finally bringing the Tigers into striking distance.

Hafen's homerun brought the score to 6-3, and it looked like the Tigers might be able to claw back in to the game. Just as quickly as the window opened for W-P to strike though, it slammed shut.

Lyons regained her focus and gutted out two more outstanding innings, striking out five more batters and allowing no hits, while the Irish scored another run to reach the final score of 7-3.

Potts said the loss was hard to take considering how high her team's hopes had been going into the series and how long the senior players had been together.

"Its always tough to lose, but it's really tough to lose with this group," she said. "Our left fielder has been with us since she was a seventh grader, so it's just a very close group, it's a tough group to say good bye to."