Moses Lake fastpitch falls short of state

EAST WENATCHEE - The Moses Lake fastpitch team took two tough losses over the weekend to put them short of the state tournament.

On Friday, the Lady Chiefs took on Eastmont High School in the district championship. They had played Eastmont in a doubleheader earlier this season, where they lost game one, 15-5, but tied 2-2 in game two. This time, however, the Lady Chiefs struggled to get on base and ultimately lost 10-0.

“Well, I mean, you gotta give a little credit to Brittany (Howe), their pitcher, she was money today,” Moses Lake Head Coach Mike Hofheins said. “We battled her a little bit, fouling off a lot of pitches but to her credit, you know, I've watched her play a lot, she's a pretty tough cookie. She's not the MVP of the league for no reason. So yeah, she was on her game today and we, unlike last time we played them, our defense was really not clean. So you can't give them extra outs and not play clean defense and expect to hang with a team like that, especially when their pitcher is hot.”

Starting the game, Moses Lake went to bat first. Leading off the lineup was sophomore Raegen Hofheins. Making contact with the ball on all three of the first throws, the third hit popped up and was caught by the catcher and Hofheins marked the first out of the game.

Next up was junior Ali Stanley who struck out. Junior Jazlynn Torres was up next, with a hit out to left field but was caught by Easmont.

Sophomore Morgan Ross was the starting pitcher for the Lady Chiefs. While she walked the first batter, the second made contact with the ball but was caught by right fielder Piper Bradshaw, for Eastmont’s first out of the inning. The second out came with the very next batter’s hit being caught at centerfield by Stanley. While Eastmont’s fourth batter was at the plate, the first batter who was walked to first base, stole second but did not make it any further as the fourth batter got out at first.

Going into the second inning the score was 0-0, each team managing to keep the other from any runs.

Moses Lake sophomore Mikayla Schwartz started off the lineup for the Lady Chiefs in the second inning. She struck out.

Up next was junior Katelyn Kriete who was walked to first but was switched out for sophomore Trinity Nations at the base.

Third was Bradshaw but after two foul balls, struck out.

To finish the inning for the Lady Chiefs was senior Rylie Sanchez, who managed to make contact with the ball at the right time, but was caught by Eastmont.

The bottom of the second is when things started to go sideways for the Lady Chiefs. The second and third innings saw two runs each from Eastmont but none from Moses Lake. At the end of the third inning, Eastmont saw their third out when one of their players collided with a Lady Chief while running from first to second. The referees initially called interference on the runner, but after a short discussion changed their minds and called her safe. Hofheins formally contested the calling and the referees went into another discussion where the rule book could be seen being looked through. After several minutes, the referees reverted their decision back to that the runner had interfered and was out.

“That was just a quirky thing and (the referees) eventually got it right,’ said Hofheins.

The fourth inning took an even harder toll on Moses Lake’s path to victory when Eastmont saw another five runs. With a 9-0 lead, the game seemed to be in Eastmont’s lap. Moses Lake pushed back however and kept Eastmont scoreless in the fifth inning. Eastmont responded and also kept Moses Lake from bringing in any runs and scored the 10th and final run in the sixth inning, triggering the 10-run rule and taking the game and the district title from the Lady Chiefs. The final score was 10-0 in favor of Eastmont.

“Well, I just told the girls I felt like they fought,” said Hofheins. “They didn't have any quit in them. I liked their effort and their body language. We just didn't have it today. We just weren't on defensively. But yeah, I still like how they compete and how they hate losing, and those are fun kids to coach.”

This loss pushed Moses Lake into the district consolation bracket to play West Valley the next day. Winner would advance to state the next week and loser would be out.

Hofheins said that going into Saturday, he was not underestimating West Valley but was positive about his team doing well.

“The top three teams in the league are good. I mean, Eastmont is super loaded, West Valley’s got some talent, we're pretty good, so it's just gonna come down to who executes tomorrow,” said Hofheins.

Moses Lake also fell to West Valley in the consolation bracket on 9-7, ending their season.

Moses Lake had the lead 5-3 in the first inning, and held a 6-3 lead until the fourth inning when West Valley notched five runs. West Valley and Moses Lake each notched only one more run before the game was over, but it wasn’t enough for the Lady Chiefs to take the lead back.

Kriete and Sanchez led the Lady Chiefs with two RBIs each; Stanley, Torres and Ross had one each.

The Lady Chiefs had beaten West Valley in a doubleheader just a few weeks earlier on April 29, 11-8 and 13-3.

The Lady Chiefs finished their season 17-3-1 overall.

Rebecca Pettingill can be reached at rpettingill@columbiabasinherald.com.