Taking somewhat of an unconventional path to districts than what it is normally accustomed to, the W.F. West softball team clinched the final spot in the 2A District 4 tournament Tuesday afternoon with a 12-2 five-inning victory over Mark Morris in the pigtail at Rec Park.
The win sends the Bearcats into more familiar territory after they needed to win a play-in game against Rochester to get into this pigtail matchup, and then win Tuesday just to get into districts.
“We’ve never done this,” Bearcats coach Kevin Zylstra said. “It’s nice not looking at playing for our season in one game. If we laid an egg, we’re done. Now we’re not to that point.”
The Bearcats meandered through the order their first go around without scoring any runs, until Addison Froschauer got things started at the bottom of the lineup with a single in the third. Lena Fragner followed that up with another single, and Brielle Etter knocked in the first runs of the game on a base hit an at-bat later to score two before the Monarchs could even record an out.
Savannah Hawkins knocked in Etter a few at-bats later to give the Bearcats a 3-0 lead, when in the fourth the W.F. West bats went quiet again. The Monarchs finally got ahold of Ella Young’s speed — who finished five innings pitched with a strikeout and five hits allowed with four walks — and put two runs on the board to trim the deficit to just one heading into the bottom of the fifth.
Then came back-to-back doubles to open the fifth, scoring one run for the Bearcats. The Monarchs made a pitching change, and before that pitcher could record an out, a walk, two more doubles, and then two more walks scored three more runs and left the bases-loaded, with the Bearcats looking to end the game right then and there.
Though Mark Morris recorded two outs, the hit parade didn’t stop and Hawkins eventually walked it off with an RBI single to help W.F. West to the 12-2 win, and a 9-run inning in the fifth.
“I kept looking up and saw no outs, I liked our chances at that point,” Zylstra said. “The girls, all throughout the lineup, you have to have everyone hitting and everyone was. That’s good stuff right there.”
Etter finished with a team-high three RBIs, knocking in two runs in the third and another on a sacrifice in the fifth. Avalon Myers went 3 for 4 with two runs scored and an RBI, Staysha Fluetsch continued her strong play at the dish with a 3-for-4 performance with two runs scored and two RBIs, and Rachel Gray went 2 for 3 with two RBIs on a double.
Every Bearcat reached base, and every Bearcat scored a run over the course of the game.
“Everybody knows what we can do, we just have to go out and do it,” Zylstra said. “There’s no secrets at this point.”
W.F. West will get a day off before returning to Rec Park to take on Greater St. Helen’s League champion Ridgefield in the first round of the 2A District 4 tournament Thursday.
