Jacks down Cashmere

QUINCY – With two outs in the top of the seventh inning and two strikes on the board, Quincy pitcher Emilee Morris had five words to keep her locked in to close out Tuesday’s 8-7 win over Cashmere in Quincy.

“‘One pitch at a time’ is what I kept telling myself,” she said.

The Cashmere batter hit a line drive to deep center field, but junior center fielder Nicole Durfee moved toward the ball to make the grab, giving Quincy its seventh win of the season.

“I didn’t execute that pitch, but (Durfee) really had my back there,” Morris said. “I couldn’t be more proud of her.”

Quincy and Cashmere traded proverbial blows over the course of the final five innings on Tuesday afternoon when the Bulldogs struck first in the top of the third. The Jacks answered on an RBI single by junior Michelle Acevedo that sent Morris home and scored again on an RBI single by senior Ashley Avalos for a 2-1 lead.

Once the Bulldogs took a 3-2 lead in the top of the fourth inning, Quincy rallied with a three-run bottom of the fourth with RBI by Morris and Durfee, along with freshman Mariah Stephens scoring off a passed ball.

“Resilience, we’ve been building that,” Quincy Head Coach Pauline Baughman said. “We’ve been working hard on that this season and it’s not something that just comes naturally, it’s something that we have to focus on.”

Along with retaking the lead, the fourth inning gave Quincy a momentum boost that carried on to the fifth and sixth innings, where the Jacks scored three additional runs.

“Any time you can get that momentum and you can roll with it, that’s important,” Baughman said. “When we got our runners on and were doing our jobs at the plate, it really helped to make sure that we were not letting anyone down. I think our goal of supporting each other really shined in that inning.”

Freshman Hayden Morris stole home in the bottom of the fifth inning, and Cashmere cut the lead to 6-5 in the top of the sixth inning, and Morris gave the Jacks some breathing room when she scored on a wild pitch to give her team a 7-5 lead. Avalos batted in another run later in the inning to move the score to 8-5.

“Our whole team’s offense was great today,” Morris said. “At first we were a little hesitant, stayed at 0-0 for a while and hits not stringing together, but once we started talking it up in the dugout everyone’s energy came up and we started to get the hits and get on base.”

The first four Cashmere batters got on base in the top of the seventh inning, the first three by hits and the fourth on a walk. A Bulldog groundout followed a brief meeting in the pitcher’s circle between coaches and players, then a strikeout by Morris for the second out. The next at-bat saw Durfee’s catch in deep center field to close out the game.

“Cashmere’s a great team, and they’re ranked higher than us (in the WIAA’s RPI Rankings),” Baughman said. “We came into this knowing that we would have to battle, and also knowing that they were probably going to be our toughest competition of the season. We weren’t quite sure what was going to happen, but we knew we were going to give it our all.”

The win moved the Jacks to a 7-1 start to the season and gave them their first league win of the year.

“I’m super proud of them,” Baughman said. “They worked really hard, and it’s a great victory for them today.”

Baughman credits the strong start to the year to attentiveness during practices to help prepare for games.

“We’ve been focused and intentional about what we’re doing daily in our practices,” Baughman said. “We’ve worked a lot of kinks out and tried to stay positive throughout it, and I think that we’ve been intentionally focused during practices for the next opponent. That helps because we’re not just drilling, but we’re drilling with the thought of ‘What are we facing next?”

Morris said Quincy used the week off for spring break to prepare for its clash with the Bulldogs, which ended up paying off.

“We knew that Cashmere was going to be great competition, we spent spring break preparing,” she said. “In the circle there was a lot of pressure on me, and I couldn’t be more proud of the girls that had my back. I gave up a lot of hits and I knew that was coming – Cashmere’s a great hitting team – but those girls, they really had my back and executed the plays.”

The Jackrabbits, who won two games in 2022 and four in 2021, have already surpassed the win totals of the previous two seasons.

“This is my third year playing and we’ve never won this many games, it feels really nice for me and the other upperclassmen who have experienced losing seasons,” Morris said. “We feel like we’re really going to build off this. Cashmere is really tough, and after getting that win I feel like everyone’s going to be really confident. We’re ready for Chelan on Saturday.”

Ian Bivona may be reached at ibivona@columbiabasinherald.com.

Box Score

Quincy: 0-0-2-3-1-2-X: 8

Cashmere: 0-0-1-2-0-2-2: 7