WP Comes Out Swinging

PRESCOTT -- After being rained out of several early games, the WP Tigers were eager to get into their first contest of the season last Saturday and did so swinging.

The softball team won the first of its doubleheader games against Asotin, 8-2, and came close to beating the Panthers in the second game, leaving only three points on the table, 8-11.

"I'm not disappointed at all with that," head coach Angie Potts said. "I saw really good things."

WP opened the scoring right off the bat with a run in the bottom of first inning. Asotin came back with its own first run in the top of the fourth, but the Tigers were hot on the other cats' tails with two more runs before the fourth was over.

That turned out to be just a warmup for the bottom of the fifth inning, in which WP scored five runs to give it an 8-1 lead, prompting an Asotin in fielder to issue a desperate call to her teammates: "we can get out of this, ladies."

After their coach told them they had "to find the fire," the Panthers came back with one more run in the 7th, but it wasn't enough to overcome the Tigers' big opening points margin.

Samantha Moss and Dionna Baker each had two RBIs. Katy Hofer and Rhiannon Chapman each hit a double in the 5th inning, while Heidi Miller hit a triple in the 4th.

"It feels good," WP sophomore Enedina Fuentes said. "As far as hitting goes, we had a bit of trouble at first but we bumped it up at the end of the game."

In the second game, Asotin came on strong at the top of the first inning with three runs. The Tigers had three answers in the bottom of the first, but none to the three runs the Panthers put on the board in the 2nd inning.

Catcher Dionna Baker was pivotal to her team's success in the first inning. She first dead-ended Asotin's momentum by catching a foul ball behind home plate for the third out, then scored a triple when she was up to bat and was soon the first to score, capitalizing on the Panthers' confusion around their home plate.

Hailey Goenen's tough center-field hit put her on first, while Katie Hofer's line-drive hit sent Goenen to third and Hofer herself to second. Rhiannon Chapman's hit brought home Goenen and Hofer, tying up the scoreboard.

After Asotin scored three in the second, WP held the Panthers scoreless in the top of the third. Baker pounded a second triple in the bottom of the third and a midfield flier from Goenen brought the catcher in, bringing the score to 6-4.

Hofer, Goenen and Chapman would finish tying the score again with hits and runs. But the next two innings were all Asotin's with the Panthers extending their lead by another three points, 9-6 .

"Their hitting kept them in it," Potts said about the Panthers.

The Tigers scored two more runs in the bottom of the sixth inning, but couldn't stop Asotin's second-game scoring machine, which added two more runs to finish the game, 11-8.

Despite the outcome of the second game, Potts was pleased with her team's overall defensive effort with pitcher Jennifer Nichols' 15 strikeouts in the two games and Baker's four outs at home plate. She also noted Samantha Henze's solid and errorless defense on second base.

"That's a great start," the head coach said.

Highlights in the second game included Baker's three RBIs and two triples, Hofer's double and two RBIs, Chapman's double and Heidi Miller's double in the 5th.