The West Plains Bandits 18U softball team finished its season with a third-place finish at the Pumpkin Classic in Selah, Oct. 8 – 9.
The Bandits went 2-1 in pool play on Saturday to earn a No. 2 seed in Sunday’s Gold Champions bracket, but three errors against the Tri-Cities Thunder proved costly and ended West Plains’ run at a possible title.
Maddie Kallsen’s RBI double, Deanna Koeppen’s RBI groundout and Taylor Pavao’s RBI single staked West Plains to a 3-0 first-inning lead in the opener against the Menace. A three-base error by the centerfielder on Cheyanne Gleave’s single that scored Hailey Hostetter in the top of the second proved to be the game winner in the Bandits 8-3 victory. Taylor Carpenter pitched five complete innings for the win.
West Plains followed that with a convincing 14-1 win over the Lady Royals, with Kallsen and Carpenter both going 2 for 3 at the plate. Eight of the 10 Bandit hitters drove in at least one run, with Ashlyn Tamietti, Rachel Barsness, Sarah Mayer, Hostetter and Shelby Melton each driving in two. Gleave went the distance to get the win.
In the nightcap, Bandits head coach Byron Pavao said too many errors and not enough offense proved to the difference in West Plains’ 8-3 loss to the Washington Force. The Bandits managed just five hits, including Barsness’ solo home run in the bottom of the first to cut the Force’s lead to 4-1, and committed five errors.
Still, the Bandits managed a No. 2 seed, and with the Washington Force at No.1 at the other end of the gold bracket, it seemed as if the two would reunite in the title game. That is until Tri-Cities got in West Plains’ way.
Tamietti broke the scoreless tie with a two-run triple in the top of the third, and scored on Gleave’s RBI double to center. Kallsen brought her Cheney Lady Blackhawk teammate home with a single to right to make it 4-0.
But in the bottom of the frame, the Bandits committed three errors helping the Thunder score five runs that proved decisive in the end.
“We seemed to never recover and were eliminated,” Pavao said in an email. “WA Force went on to win the Gold bracket over the Tri-Cities Thunder.”
Kallsen led West Plains at the plate with a .556 average, going 5 for 9 with three RBIs. Melton was 4 for 8 and Barsness 3 for 7, with Tamietti leading in RBIs with four. Carpenter was 1-0 on the mound, giving up no earned runs while striking out 11 and walking two over 11 innings pitched. Gleave went 1-1 and Kallsen was 0-1.
“The girls played well and we were able to take some note on what to work on in the off season,” Pavao said. “We might have been able to generate a few more runs had we not been missing a couple of our key players due to high school homecomings, but that is what you get when you play into fall.”
John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.
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