Medical Lake falls 9-8 in last at-bat to Seattle Christian; rally not enough in 6-5 loss to Zillah
Medical Lake's Glori Cheevers launches a double last Saturday against Zillah in the state 1A softball playoffs in Richland. The Cards were eliminated with two losses Friday.
One game Medical Lake couldn't put the stop to a last-inning rally by their opponent and lost to Seattle Christian 9-8.
In the next the Cardinals ran out of runs as a seventh-inning rally fell short, handing Zillah a 6-5 win in the 1A state softball championships last Friday in Richland.
The losses knocked the Cardinals out of the tournament after just one day, ending their season under rookie head coach Tim Blakely with a 17-10 record. "We battled, that was the biggest thing," Blakely said of the school's first trip to state since 2006.
Hannah Ruffcom's line drive RBI double in the bottom of the seventh inning that drove home Alyssa Baucom erased an 8-7 Medical Lake lead and left the Cards with one foot in the hole.
In the second loser-out game with Zillah leading 6-3, the Cardinals simply ran out of bats.
Hailey and Glori Cheevers led off with back-to-back singles. Hailey Cheevers eventually scored on a passed ball to make it 6-4. Glori Cheevers scored on Kayla Pruitt's single cutting it to a 6-5 contest.
Chelsea Hamby's single put runners on first and second. Bradyn Wegner struck out for the inning's first out and Claire Dormaier's sacrifice bunt moved the runners up into scoring position but Taylor Pavao's ground out ended the game.
"They got some timely hits," Blakely said of Zillah. "we got some timely hits, too, we just left too many kids on base."
Pitcher Jordyn Soliday threw 11 strikeouts in the second game and five in the first.
In the opener, the Cardinals bolted to a 4-0 lead after three innings. Pruitt tripled to open the second and scored on a Hamby ground out. Wegner hit a one-out double and scored on a Dormaier sacrifice bunt. Glori Cheevers stroked a two-out double in the third and scored on a Pruitt single for a 3-0 lead. Pruitt scored on Hamby's double.
After Seattle Christian erupted for eight runs, three in the third and five more in the fourth to lead 8-5, Medical Lake chipped away. Glori Cheevers' led off the fifth with a single and later score on a throwing error for an 8-6 game.
Soliday, Rachel Stanfill and Glori Cheevers each had three hits in the opener. Soliday and Hamby each had a pair of RBIs.
In the solitude and somberness of the postgame, Blakely was reminded that his team had come quite a ways this season. One of the players made a point to Blakely reminding him that Northeast A League and district champion Lakeside was also finished Friday with two straight losses.
Medical Lake closed a lot of ground this season between themselves and the multi-time NEA softball champions, which is a good sign for 2015, Blakely said.
Medical Lake will lose three seniors, Soliday, Shelby Pavao and Hailey Cheevers but everyone else is expected back.
"That first game with Lakeside going 10 innings (before losing 9-8) it was kind of a wake-up call for the kids," Blakely said. It reminded his team they could play with the top team in the league.
Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com.
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