Road ends in defeat for Lady Cougars
MOSES LAKE — The Warden Lady Cougars put together two solid games at the 1A State Softball Championships Friday, but two tough opponents resulted in two losses and a premature end to Warden's state tournament.
The Lady Cougars opened tournament play with a 5-1 loss to the Castle Rock Rockets, who would go on to win the state title. In consolation round play, Warden matched up with the Nooksack Valley Pioneers, a 22-2 squad entering the tournament that suffered an opening-round upset loss to the Lakeside Eagles.
Midway through the regular season, Nooksack Valley beat Warden 6-2 at the Royal Tournament. While the earlier matchup didn't go in Warden's favor, it did give the Lady Cougars and their coach an idea of what the Pioneers brought to the table.
"We knew we could play with them," said Warden coach Wes Richins.
In the elimination game, Nooksack Valley took an early 2-0 lead on some solid hitting. Warden pitcher Randi Wright quickly retired the first two batters of the first inning, but a two-out walk got the Pioneers started on a rally.
Following the walk, a double to left field scored the game's first run. Nooksack Valley came right back with an RBI single in their next at-bat to make the score 2-0. Wright got a strikeout to get out of the inning, the first of her six punchouts against the Pioneers, but the damage was already done.
"That really gave them a little momentum," said Richins. "I think that we kept our heads up and kept plugging along."
Nooksack Valley added a run in the top of the fifth to make it 3-0, but the Lady Cougars put together a rally in the bottom half of the inning that got them right back in the game.
Wright led off the inning with an infield single, Amanda Martinez reached base on an error, and Jenny Guerra singled to load the bases for Warden with no outs. After a strikeout, Jennifer Whitaker came to the plate and delivered a sacrifice fly that scored Wright from third base.
Cassandra Kisler then came up and singled past first base to drive in Martinez. Kisler stole second to get the go-ahead run into scoring position, but the inning ended on a groundout to third.
Warden could do no more damage though, as the Lady Cougars were retired in order in both the sixth and seventh innings to end their season with a 3-2 loss.
"We've played much better this weekend than we did last weekend," said Richins in reference to Warden's effort at the district tournament. "I think we represented ourselves and our league well."
The Lady Cougars opened the tournament against Castle Rock. The Rockets took a 2-0 lead in the first inning off a 2-run home run, but Warden responded to cut the lead in half with a run in the third inning.
Warden scored their only run of the game when Whitaker singled and later scored on a Castle Rock error.
Castle Rock answered with a pair of doubles that scored a run in the bottom of the third, and added two more runs in the fifth as Warden committed three errors in the inning.
"The level of competition at this tournament is great," said Richins. "Most of the scores are low and tight. That's what good softball scores should be."