Toledo travels the long road to return to state

There were multiple times that Toledo could have phoned it in across the district tournament.

They could have rolled over after Forks blew past them in a semifinal. They could have folded the towel after Pe Ell-Willapa Valley rallied to defeat them in a winner-to-state game. They could have given up when Coupeville took a three-run lead in an elimination game.

Instead, each and every time, the Riverhawks battled back.

After losing to Forks and letting a late lead slip away against PWV, they blew past Onalaska. And when they fell behind three runs to the Wolves in their final game of the district tournament, they quickly rallied back to take the lead.

“If I gave up now, then we did it all for nothing,” Peyton Holter said. “It just made me want it that much more.”

Holter settled into the game in the circle, and the Toledo offense pieced together multiple rallies en route to an 11-4 win Saturday evening, one that sends the Riverhawks back to the state tournament for the second time in three years.

“It looked very bleak,” Toledo coach Jeff Davis said. “But we kept playing. We kept battling.”

Holter brought home the first run of Toledo’s win over Coupeville, as she crossed the plate on a Zaya Norberg ground ball.

One inning later, Camryn Hurley got the Riverhawks within one with an RBI groundout of her own, and Norberg tied the game with an RBI single. Holter followed with another RBI single which gave Toledo (19-6) the lead.

The score remained the same until the fifth, when the Riverhawks blew the game open. Taysia Miller turned a two-run lead into a five-run lead with a three-run triple, and Mialeigh Jurica brought her home with another triple.

Brynn Davis also drove in a run in that inning, as did Holter.

Davis finished the game a perfect 4 for 4 at the plate, while Jurica, Norberg, and Holter collected two hits each and combined for five RBIs.

After the Wolves got three against Holter in the circle in the bottom of the first, she settled in. From the second inning on, Holter allowed just two hits and one run while striking out five.

“They were hitting every pitch she had in that first inning,” Davis said. “She just had to keep believing in herself … She responded well.”

And while they surely would have preferred to qualify sooner, Holter said that going the long way through the district tournament made qualifying for state that much sweeter.

“To be honest, I didn’t think we’d make it this far,” Holter admitted with a laugh.

This will be the second time that the Riverhawks have gone to the state tournament in three years, but only the four Toledo seniors — Davis, Jurica, Quyn Norberg, and Jordynne Hensley — were on the team two years ago.

The rest of the team is made up of freshmen and eighth graders, including Holter, Zaya Norberg, and Kailea Lairson.

“A lot of these girls didn’t get to go to state,” Davis said. “We’re gonna enjoy this, get back to work on Monday, take the trip, and see what happens.”

The Riverhawks will find out their seed and first-round matchup in the state tournament on Sunday, and the 2B Softball State Tournament is set for May 24 and 25 at the Gateway Sports Complex in Yakima.