WP Places Second In Regionals

SPOKANE - While their home town celebrated 100 years of horse racing Sat­urday, the WP Tigers had a "real sport" celebration of their own 135 miles away.

Fresh from wining the District 9 title in Walla Walla the previous weekend, the Waitsburg Prescott softball team proudly held up a sec­ond place regionals trophy at Merkel Field in Spokane.

The Tigers placed high in the pre-state District 7 & 9 tournament after beating the Mary Walker Chargers 11-3 in the first game and cross- valley rivals Dayton 8-4 in the second. Having narrowly beaten DeSales in Walla Walla, the Tigers could not get by them this time and lost to the Irish 11-1.

But it mattered little to girls, who left the diamond amidst smiles and laughter, excited to a top-seeded team going into the state playoffs in Yakima this weekend.

"I'm not disappointed with it at all," WP head coach Angie Potts said about the team's ranking after DeSales. "Winning second place helps our seeding at state."

Looking back at Saturday three games, Potts' focus was very much on the way her girls played earlier in the day.

"We played well, we hit well, we did everything we needed to do," she said. "Ev­erybody did something (to contribute)."

Catcher Chelsea Bran­nock was the first to light up the score board for her team after hitting a single and stealing two bases before getting the run with a pair of very dusty pants.

Outfielder Samantha Moss made the second run, putting the Tigers up 2-0 in the bottom of the first and setting the pace for the rest of the game.

While WP held the Char­gers scoreless until the fifth inning thanks to Jen Nich­ols' solid pitching and few damaging defensive errors, the Tigers themselves added four more points spread over three innings.

Mary Walker scored two on a home plate error and took another run before Nichols caught a hit on the mount for the final out of the top of the fifth. In the bottom of the fifth, Brannock would have none of the Chargers' comeback and pounded a crowd-pleasing homer to put her team up 7-3. The fired-up team loaded two more bases but did not score again.

The Tigers' scoring drive resumed in the sixth when Jessica Foxe, Samantha Henze, Logan Harshman, Samantha Fedderson and Moss all pounded out hits or dropped the ball with a bunt to advance their team 11-3 before the last inning in which Nichols again held the Chargers scoreless and a WP double play retired Mary Walker for the game.

In game 2, the Tigers ran into more resistance from the Dayton Bulldogs, fresh from their 9-6 victory over Colfax, but the Lady Dogs were in catch-up mode from the outset.

WP scored 4 in the first inning with runs from Bran­nock, Moss, Katie Hofer and Rhiannon Chapman. By the time Dayton retired the Tigers at the top of the first, WP batters had already shown they were effective and consistent.

Dayton answered with a run of its own in the bottom of the first. A double from Jessica Tate advanced Ma­lia Frame and loaded two. Starting pitcher Sam Harting scored Frame with two outs, setting up McKayla Bick­elhaupt for another score attempt only to see her hard hit caught by WP's defense.

Dayton defense tightened in the second inning with a deep difficult catch from Tate for a second out. The Dogs kept WP scoreless with a fly-ball catch for a third out. In the bottom of the second, Dayton scored with a center ground hit from Kelly Moore before Nichols could strike out the last Bulldog for the final out.

Both teams' defense held in the third inning, but in the top of the fourth Bran­nock's center-field hit scored Harshman. Dayton pitcher Lexi Ward walked Moss, loading second and third base, and allowing Heidi Miller's ground ball to bring in two more runs to put the Tigers further ahead 7-2.

Dayton didn't answer until the bottom of the fifth after Frame got a single and Tate a line drive double. Bickelhaupt's high fly gave Frame a chance to score. WP's tit-for-tat came in the top of the sixth inning when Tiger Moss made the run from third base on an overthrow error to make the score 8-3. Dayton would get one more run in the bottom of the seventh before Moss caught the last out and froze the final score at 8-4.

But as solid as the Tigers looked against their first two opponents, they could not stop the Irish' momen­tum in the third game. De­Sales pitcher Ashley Lyons launched a three-run homer in the top of the first in­ning, setting the tone for her team's convincing victory over the Tigers.

The Walla Walla team scored four more runs be­fore WP retired the side on a fly ball catch, ending the DeSales onslaught at 7-0. The Tigers did not give up, loading bases in the first and several subsequent innings but failing to get the much- needed runs.

DeSales scored again in the top of the second. WP managed to get on the board with 1 in the bottom of the second, after Harshman hit a triple, then scored on the next hit from Fedderson. But it would be the only run in the game. DeSales sprinkled out more scores in the fourth and sixth innings to end the game early 11-1.

"We made mistakes that hurt us early," Potts said. "The (three-run) homer didn't help. If you give them (DeSales) an opportunity to get on the board, it's really hard to get those points back.

The Tigers' first game against Morton White Pass starts at 11 am.