Tigers down Jacks on senior night

EPHRATA – The Tigers earned back-to-back wins over Quincy on Tuesday night, sweeping the Jacks with 16-1 and 12-2 wins on senior night.

“I’ve been playing this sport for about 13 years, and I’ve really loved having my last year be with these girls,” Ephrata senior Alexis Park said.

Park and junior Peyton Trautman both hit home runs during Tuesday’s games, two of Ephrata’s 24 hits over the two games. The senior’s home run came in the bottom of the second inning of the first game, which gave Ephrata a 2-0 lead.

“I find that when I’m not thinking in the (batter’s) box, I tend to hit the ball,” Park said. “It’s all mental, it’s a mental game.”

The home run sparked an eight-run second inning for the Tigers, who added runs off a two-RBI double by sophomore Kaydence Hector; a bases-loaded walk when sophomore Jaemyson Durfee was hit by a pitch; an RBI single by senior Marlena Rodriguez; and another RBI by Park.

“They finally saw the ball, it’s a slower pitcher that they’re not used to,” Ephrata Head Coach Heather Wood said. “They became patient at the plate, and really decided to take their pitch and drive it.”

Ephrata added eight more runs over the next two innings, ending game one with a 16-1 win over the Jacks. Quincy began the nightcap with some momentum, putting together two bases-loaded situations in both the top of the first and second innings, but were only able to add one run – junior Emilee Morris scoring on a passed ball.

“When we’ve got bases loaded, we want runners to be moving regardless of what the batter’s doing,” Quincy Head Coach Pauline Baughman said. “We didn’t really get that opportunity today. As a batter, we have to prepare mentally for that position that we’ve put ourselves in … and then the other side of that is we’ve got to be looking for the base path to be able to score.”

Park, Ephrata’s catcher, credited the team’s defensive mindset for being able to get out of two early bases-loaded situations.

“It gets in our heads a lot that if we don’t make the next play, they’re going to score,” Park said. “One thing that we make sure of is to keep our pitcher up, because it’s a hard thing for the pitcher to do – to get someone out every single time. That’s one of our strongest things.”

After Ephrata took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the first inning off an RBI double by Durfee, Quincy tied the game at two in the top of the third on an RBI double by freshman Mariah Stephens. The Tiger offense came alive again in the bottom of the fourth, where Ephrata scored four runs to take a 6-2 lead.

In the bottom of the fifth, Trautman’s three-run home run gave Ephrata a 12-2 lead.

“I, really, just swung,” Trautman said. “You can tell, when you just feel it. You just know. When I swung and I felt it come off the bat, I just knew (it was a home run).”

Ephrata improved to 12-4 with the wins, and currently sits at third place in the Central Washington Athletic Conference standings.

“It’ll be nice to continue and give (the seniors) the goals they’ve been reaching for since they were freshmen,” Wood said.

Quincy fell to 10-5 with the losses and are in third in the Caribou Trail League standings. Being a non-league matchup, Baughman said Tuesday’s games were used to help the Jacks prepare for Friday’s league doubleheader against Omak.

“Our mindset is (on) Omak, and what we have to do against them coming up,” Baughman said. “Today was mostly just using this as preparation for Omak. We knew Ephrata’s been doing really well, they’re a strong-hitting team. We were going to see some good pitching. We were utilizing what they had in order to prepare ourselves for the next step.”

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

Box Scores

Game One

QUI: 0-0-0-1 1

EPH: 0-8-2-6 16

Game Two

QUI: 1-0-1-0-0 2

EPH: 2-0-0-4-6 12