The two most dominant pitchers to come to Rec Park for the 2A District 4 tournament went head-to-head Friday, and the result went pretty much the way you’d expect, as R.A. Long beat Tumwater 1-0 in a loser-out, winner-to-State game.
RAL’s Jadyn Terry had just about willed the Lumberjacks to the No. 2 seed in the 2A GSHL, and Tumwater’s Ella Ferguson had done the same for the T-Birds in the EvCo. Friday, the two combined for 21 strikeouts, while each allowing just two hits.
“That was a pitchers’ duel,” Tumwater coach Ashley Lupinski said. “I thought their pitcher threw very well. I thought Ella threw a great game as well, just that one hit in the first inning.”
That one hit in the first inning was an infield knock to lead the game off. After a groundout moved the runner up, an error brought her home to make it 1-0.
After that, it was a whole lot of zeroes.
Terry started off with five no-hit innings, though she had to work around runners in the first and third thanks to errors.
In the sixth, Zoe Fields broke up the no-hitter with a two-out knock. Jaime Haase followed her with a bloop into very shallow right field. Fields' jump with two outs on the high pop-up was enough to get her to third easily, but sensing that the T-Birds might not get another chance, Lupinski waved her all the way around, and RAL's defense — which finished with four errors on the day — threw her out at the plate.
“On that one, I’m just like, ‘These are the first two balls we’ve put in play, we’ve got to try to score,’” — Lupinski said. “And you know what, they just played catch, and that’s what you’ve got to do to win ball games. That was a great play.”
Tumwater got the tying and go-ahead runs to into scoring position with two outs in the seventh thanks to an error and a walk, but RAL’s ace sealed it with her 13th strikeout of the game.
Opposite her, Ferguson finished with eight punchouts, giving up just one hit in the final six innings.
The sophomore finished a season in which she threw all but three of Tumwater’s innings with 240 strikeouts, ending with a 1.83 ERA.
“We do have a relationship where I can be really tough on her, and she does a really good job of taking it and going out there and doing her best,” Lupinski said. “I love coaching Ella, and I love that I have two more years with her. I sincerely couldn’t be more proud of her; she did everything she could for the team to win.”
Tumwater is set to graduate two seniors from this year’s team: Kylie Waltermeyer and Kylee Hernandez.
