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ADNA — Adna and Toledo entered Saturday as the last two teams unbeaten in Central 2B League play, and a matinee between the two teams provided one side to take firm control atop the league standings.
It didn’t take long for Adna to reclaim its spot at the top.
Charlie Myers set down the Riverhawks in order in the top of the first, and after Hadleigh Gerard was hit by a pitch on the second pitch of her at-bat, Lena McCloskey stepped up and sent a blast over the fence in left-center field to put the Pirates up two.
“I was thinking ‘Let’s go,’” McCloskey said with a smile and a laugh. “We were ready, and I was ready to show up for my team. I just want to be here for my team.”
The homer was the first of four Adna home runs, as the Pirates blasted their way to a dominant 11-0 victory, one that leaves them as the final team in the C2BL without a loss.
Alyssa Carroll hit a home run on a laser over the fence in left, and Tieander Olson homered twice. First, Olson cleared the batter’s eye in center, then she ended the game with an opposite field three-run run-rule walk-off home run.
In total, the Pirates finished with 11 hits, including the four home runs and a McCloskey double that hit the fence.
Each of the top four hitters in the Adna lineup — Gerard, McCloskey, Olson, and Carroll — finished with two hits apiece and scored nine of Adna’s 11 runs.
“Our approach was like it should be today,” Adna coach Bruce Pocklington said. “We hit the ball hard, and we pressed on the bases. That’s the way I want these girls to play all the time. We have played like that sometimes, we don’t play like that all the time. It needs to be all the time … It was a good day.”
In the circle, Myers was nearly unhittable. She retired the first 11 batters she faced before issuing a walk, and the only hit she allowed was an infield single.
“Charlie threw really well,” Pocklington said. “She threw a lot of strikes, and she kept them off balance.”
The Pirates are now 12-2 overall and 5-0 in league play, and with six games left in the regular season, Pocklington says the focus is on playing their best softball at the right time.
It's something they’ve grown accustomed to doing over the last three years, winning each of the last three state titles.
He admitted that sometimes over the course of the season, it can be tough for his players to stay as mentally locked in as they would need to be during a potential postseason run, but he did say he was glad to see them come out the way they did on Saturday.
“We came out of the gates, and we’ve been working on that a little bit,” Pocklington said. “We’re trying to get them ready for the next step.”
Adna will host Toutle Lake on Monday before heading to Onalaska on Thursday, and three non-league 1A games are also still on the slate. The Pirates will head to Montesano twice, first on Friday, then on Saturday, May 9, and they will also host Elma on Monday, May 4.
After Saturday’s performance, the Pirates are confident they can end the regular season on a high note.
“We all have so much trust in each other, and every game we come in knowing that our teammates can do whatever we need them to do,” McCloskey said. “We know that we can do it. We just need to believe in ourselves, and I think today is the turning point where we’re starting too.”
Regardless of how the regular season ends, though, Pocklington and the Pirates know well that the most important games are still to come.
“We’re going to see all those teams again somewhere,” Pocklington said, not just of Toledo, but other District 4 teams. “We know that. Those are down the road, and we’ll be ready for them.”
Xtyn Norberg tallied Toledo’s lone hit, and Kailea Lairson drew a walk to also reach base.
The Riverhawks (10-3, 3-1 C2BL) will look to bounce back on Monday in Randle against Morton/White Pass before hosting R.A. Long for a non-league matchup on Tuesday.
