RICHLAND — Hoquiam’s roller coaster season didn’t end with the Grizzlies holding the trophy they wanted, but they brought home hardware. The Grizzlies battled back from a loss to rival Montesano, 10-2, in the semifinal to defeat Chewelah, 5-0, and edge past Lakeside of Nine Mile Falls, 5-2, to come away with third place at the Class 1A State Softball Tournament at Columbia Playfields in Richland on Saturday.
“We started out very slowly and as inconsistent as we’ve been all year long, first of all, to get here was really tough and then getting here, most of our kids haven’t been to state,” Hoquiam head coach Keith Reynvaan said. “It was a little nerve racking and they handled themselves really well. Like I told the kids after the game, when you have a group of kids that will not give up, good things happen.”
The Grizzlies regrouped after their stumble against Montesano and played solid softball the rest of the way. Hoquiam stayed in control the whole game against the Cougars to vault themselves into the third/fourth place game. Lakeside went toe-to-toe with the Grizzlies for seven innings, but in the end, it was Hoquiam that would deliver the knock out blow.
Hoquiam stranded a runner in each of the first four innings before it took a defensive error to get the Grizzlies on the board against the Eagles. With Jade Cox on first after a single, Maddie German hit a ball hard to the shortstop, who threw the ball over the head of the first baseman. Cox had left on contact and was able to slide home to give Hoquiam the lead.
The Grizzlies used the spark offensively and were able to put up two more runs in the sixth. Paige Folkers led off the inning with a single and English Hyde was able to drive her home before Ashley Paladin drove in another run.
The Eagles came back to score their first runs of the game in the sixth, taking advantage of hits with two outs to plate two runs. However, the Grizzlies were able to come up with some clutch two-out offense of their own in the seventh.
With two outs in the seventh, Hyde and Kylee Bagwell were able to connect on back-to-back singles to score two insurance runs for the Grizzlies.
“Offense was hard to come by in that game for both teams,” Reynvaan said. “We took advantage of a couple of their mistakes and got some confidence and started hitting the ball a little bit. They didn’t give up and came right back at us. We had some clutch, two out hits in the seventh inning and that was the ball game.”
Grizzlies 5, Cougars 0
Hoquiam didn’t need much time for the offense to heat up against Chewelah. The Grizzlies stranded three runners in the first inning before putting together a handful of hits to add the game-winning runs in the second.
Bagwell singled with one out to spark the rally with back-to-back-to-back hits from Cox, Maya Jump and German to put the Grizzlies up for good.
Defensively, Hyde recorded six strikeouts and let her defense work behind her to limit the Cougars to just three hits in the game. The junior also walked just one batter.
Hoquiam was able to add two more runs after Folkers and ReyLynn Dun both singled to start the fifth inning. The Grizzlies capped the scoring with another run in the sixth.
Chewelah 000 000 0 — 0 3 3
Hoquiam 020 021 X — 5 11 2
Skok and Eide; Hyde and German.
RBI: Hoquiam — German, Papp, Bagwell, Paladin, Cox. Two hits: Chewelah — Robinson. Hoquiam — German, Papp, Folkers. Doubles: Hoquiam — Hyde.
Winning pitcher — Hyde (six strikeouts, one walk). Losing pitcher — Skok (two strikeouts, one walk).
Hoquiam 000 012 2 — 5 9 2
Lakeside 000 002 0 — 2 8 3
Hyde and German; Claassen and Kinzel.
RBI: Hoquiam — German, Hyde, Bagwell. Lakeside — Kinzel, Padayao. Three hits: Hoquiam — Hyde. Two hits: Hoquiam — Papp. Lakeside — Clark, Charbenneau.
Winning pitcher — Hyde (one strikeout). Losing pitcher — Claassen (nine strikeouts).
