ROCHESTER — And as the calendar flips to the final month of the softball season, a new challenger emerges.
Rochester — which began its season by taking down 2B power Adna but scuffled early in league play — backed up its upset win over Tumwater earlier in the week with a 12-7 win over W.F. West on Friday. And with one week to go before districts, the Warriors have announced their arrival in an already jam-packed 2A EvCo as one last contender.
“They’re finally starting to find themselves, find each other, and play for one another,” Rochester coach Joni Lancaster said. “I knew as soon as that clicked, it’s game on.”
It’s clicked. Game on.
A week ago, W.F. West’s Staysha Fluetsch held the Warriors to two runs on six hits in a five-inning run-rule win for the Bearcats. Friday, Rochester finally solved her, pumping out 10 knocks and two huge innings.
Up 6-5 going into the sixth, the dam burst for good when the Warriors got their fourth look of the day at Fluetsch.
“I just said, ‘Hey, we’ve seen her now. Get in there, get comfortable, get confident, and let it fly. Don’t think,’” Lancaster said. “I think a lot of the time we were going up there thinking about stuff. We’re good hitters, but when we think about stuff, things go south.”
Mckenna Vassar led off with a single up the middle, went to second on a sacrifice bunt, and came around to score on a Jessa Lenzi double. After the Bearcats intentionally walked Layna Demers — who already had a home run to her name — Macey Fluetsch made them pay with a 2-RBI double, followed by a Kaylei Clark RBI single, followed by a Kassidy Byrd double.
Just like that, a Rochester lineup that Lancaster said has been in a collective slump most of the year was making a statement the rest of the league — and the 2A GSHL to the south — would be wise to listen to.
Layna Demers, Macey Fluetsch, and Clark all had two-hit days, back-to-back-to-back in the order. The Warriors logged five extra-base hits, and by the time WFW coach Kevin Zylstra pulled Staysha Fluetsch for Monroe Dalrymple in the bottom of the sixth, it was too late.
“It’s always easy in hindsight, but it may have been time to make a switch (earlier),” Zylstra said. “But she had been doing really well.”
Rochester’s first runs came in a gifted rally in the third, when a huge error with two outs helped turn what could have been a one-run frame into a five-run crooked number.
The Bearcats got their own offense against Layna Demers with the long ball. Staysha Fluetsch bombed a two-run homer in the top of the first inning to give herself an early lead, Rachel Gray lasered a two-run home run in the fourth to cut the deficit to a run, and Avalon Myers got W.F. West a pair of runs back with a shot of her own in the seventh. Fluetsch had the best day at the plate for the Bearcats, finishing 3 for 4.
But when Demers kept the ball in the yard, she kept the Bearcats off-balance. And when she didn’t, she still managed to stop them before they could turn two-spots into bigger rallies. The sophomore struck out five, allowing seven hits and three walks, while the Warriors only committed one error behind her.
“Chehalis is going to hit the ball; we knew that,” Lancaster said. “We just played behind Layna, and good things happened.”
Rochester has now won three straight, and five of its past seven games. Sitting at 6-4 in league play, the Warriors are currently tied with W.F. West for third place in the EvCo, but the Bearcats hold the tiebreaker over them, putting them in fourth.
With two games left, the Bearcats could still win the league, while the Warriors — thanks to a season-series loss to Aberdeen — could top out at second place. On the other hand, neither team has clinched its spot in districts yet, and this season has been nothing if not chaotic.
But even if a league title is out of the picture, Rochester is currently playing itself into the role of the team nobody wants to see come districts.
“When we’re all together, we’re up there with the top, the best teams in the state,” Lancaster said.
