SELAH — Much of Saturday morning and afternoon was almost a blur. And not in the way that leads one to forget a game, or a comeback, or a lead that vanished out of thin air.
Or better yet, maybe Saturday was a dream that the W.F. West High School softball team was firmly entrenched from the moment 10 a.m. struck. Throughout a triumphant semifinal and six complete innings of a tied up state title game, that’s all Kevin Zylstra relayed to his dugout.
They were in a picture-perfect scenario.
“I told the girls going into the seventh (inning) ‘Hey, this is a dream,’” the head coach of the Bearcats stated. “One inning for the state championship. Let’s win it. We’re right there with them.”
Dreams don’t always come true.
And at 4:28 p.m. on Field 4 at Carlon Park, those dreams were crushed.
Mark Morris’ Shyanne Sellers needed just two pitches to lift a walk-off grand slam to straightaway center field to complete the No. 1 seed’s biggest comeback of the season, a 9-5 triumph over W.F. West in the Class 2A State Championship game.
The Bearcats led 1-0, 4-0 and 5-2 in their final game of the spring season. Time and time again throughout the three-month campaign, they answered the bell and found a variety of ways to win.
All they could do once Sellers’ ball hit the grass was walk into the arms of their teammates and coaches in sadness.
“In the moment it sucks,” catcher Kenley Fragner said. “I visualized us here all season.”
Still, once the dust settled on the final result and enough photos were taken to fill an entire scrapbook, there were more smiles. Even senior Francesca Remund got to throw a final pitch in the circle to assistant coach Jonathan Meyer that caused a mini celebration.
In the end, W.F. West (22-5) had the best chance to dethrone the Monarchs of anyone in Selah. It just never landed the final blow.
“We were tied at the end and that’s as good as I can ask for,” Remund said.
When the two District 4 rivals met in the title game at Recreation Park last week, it was one-sided in a hurry. Mark Morris’ bats lit up the scoreboard and its ace southpaw Makenzie Henthorn struck out 17 hitters.
Part 2 was a far cry from Part 1.
Fragner laced an RBI double in the top of the second, then the power surge that eluded W.F. West this weekend came to life in the third. Karlee Coleman, Remund off the bench and Rayah Middleton unloaded back-to-back-to-back solo homers to bump the cushion up to 4-0.
“Just had better approaches,” Remund said.
“I started thinking, OK, we got a serious chance here,” Zylstra added.
It gave Taylor Tobin breathing room in a game where she was not 100 percent and there was a real decision on if she’d start. Her velocity was down from day one and she warmed up alongside her twin sister Tanner Tobin and junior varsity arm Sophia McMenamy.
Zylstra opted to go with the arm that put the Bearcats on her back in numerous games. She started off with three scoreless innings, four strikeouts and only one base runner.
“I felt really good after getting some rest,” Taylor Tobin said.
The Monarchs, who entered Carlon Park by allowing six total runs all season, gave up eight in four state tournament games, but didn’t go down quietly.
Mikaila Warfield, Taylor Lee and Megan Fugleberg all left the yard. Lee notched the game-tying RBI single in the bottom of the sixth that ended Taylor Tobin’s day. The junior finished the state tournament by throwing 338 pitches over four games.
By the time she left the circle for the final time, she admitted the gas tank was running low.
“They were starting to read my spin a bit better,” Taylor Tobin said. “I gave it everything I had.”
Tanner Tobin came in and shut the door on the initial Mark Morris rally, but couldn’t stop the second. Two singles bookended an intentional walk to bring up Sellers, who ignited a euphoric celebration at home plate for the Monarchs’ first state softball title in program history.
W.F. West needed a rally of its own to even make the championship game, upending No. 11 Archbishop Murphy 5-4 in the semifinals.
The Bearcats stared at a 4-2 deficit in the bottom of the sixth, but like plenty of instances, they never lost faith in their ability to erase a trailing margin. Middleton roped an RBI double and scored on an E-2 to tie the game.
Fragner ripped the go-ahead single to put the Bearcats in front for good.
“It felt good, I knew we were going to win that game,” Fragner said.
That wasn’t her only signature moment.
The Wildcats recorded a two-out double and Ari Dixon hit a line drive single to center that was scooped up by Allie Smitherman, who fired a cannon right to Fragner at home and tagged the runner out, sealed the win and sent the Bearcats into bedlam.
Zylstra called Fragner’s day one of the best days of her season.
“She’s so good at working with me on calling pitches,” he said. “She was so locked in today. You could see it in her eyes.”
The junior was over the moon after the game.
“Man, I saw it hit to her and I saw her (Allie) field that thing and was like ‘Oh yeah, this is going to be an absolute dime,’” she said. “It was beautiful.”
Archbishop Murphy was not an average double digit seed and took Taylor Tobin deep on three solo home runs in the first, second and third innings. Zylstra pulled the plug on his ace and put in Tanner Tobin.
A bold move that ended up working out. Still, it was far from an easy choice.
“The girl is such a battler and if we win this game, we get one more and if we don’t win this game we’ve got two more,” Zylstra said. “We've got some serious business ahead of us, we can’t spend everything on this game.”
And even though Taylor Tobin was emotional and also puked, she gathered herself to support her twin sister.
“Tanner picked me up,” Taylor Tobin said. “I knew she had it, she looked so confident.”
Remund was the lone senior on the roster and Zylstra made sure to give her flowers in the final team huddle. Everyone else is expected to be back for the 2027 season, where the expectations are going to be to return to the state title game.
Yet the Bearcats aren’t oblivious to the fact that getting back again is not a walk in the park.
“I can’t wait to see what we do next year too,” Fragner said. “It comes down to all our grit, that will stick with us. That will capitalize in those tough moments.”
When Zylstra walked back into the dugout and collected his thoughts, he pondered the good, the not so good, the triumphant wins and the heartbreaking losses. He left Carlon Park with one word to describe the 2026 W.F. West softball team.
Heart.
“They just battle,” Zylstra stated. “How can you not be proud of this group?”
