Mavs split doubleheader against Eastmont

MOSES LAKE – Even though Moses Lake split Friday’s doubleheader against Eastmont, the Mavs will travel to East Wenatchee for the Columbia Basin Big-Nine tournament on May 20.

Moses Lake defeated the Wildcats 1-0 in the first game, but fell 8-2 in the nightcap. The tiebreaker fell to a coinflip, which fell in favor of Eastmont.

“I knew we had to sweep to host,” Moses Lake Head Coach Mike Hofheins said. “We didn’t get it done in game two.”

A pitcher’s duel took place in the first game on Friday afternoon, as both teams remained tied at zero heading into the bottom of the seventh inning. Maverick junior Morgan Ross reached first on a walk, followed by junior Kendall Reffett and senior Jadelyn Balderas getting on base with bunts. Two at-bats later, junior Raegen Hofheins hit a fly ball to deep center field, which allowed junior Trinity Nations to score off the sac-fly.

“I had been popping up all day,” Raegen Hofheins said. “I was like, ‘Bases are loaded, there’s only one out – my mentality was hit the ball as hard as you can. It’ll go far.’ Trinity (Nations) is a good runner, I trust her to get home.”

Ross got the start in the circle in game one and pitched a full game against the Wildcats.

“(Ross) was nails,” Hofheins said. “She was going against (Eastmont pitcher Brittany Howe), who’s one of the better players in our league, and the girls know her. It was kind of like a heavyweight fight so to speak, and she went punch-for-punch with her. That was fun to watch.”

While it took until the bottom of the seventh to finally add onto the scoreboard, the Mavs kept each other’s heads up in between each inning in the first game.

“We talked about it between every inning, ‘Just keep grinding and something good will happen,’” Hofheins said. “When two good teams get together with good pitching, that’s kind of how it goes. The girls, to their credit, kept grinding away and we got those runners on.”

Eastmont scored its first runs of the day in the top of the first inning of the nightcap, a lead they would hold on to for the rest of the game. Moses Lake got a run back on an RBI single by senior Jazlynn Torres in the bottom of the first, but Eastmont scored another two runs off an error in the top of the fourth.

“In game two, we just didn’t have it,” Hofheins said. “We had too many errors, just not timely hits. I know they had a bunch of unearned runs because we just didn’t play clean. Against a good team, you have to play clean.”

The Wildcats added four more runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings to build to an 8-2 lead. Moses Lake had runners in scoring position in the final three innings, but could not capitalize against the strong pitching of Eastmont.

“You’ve got to give (Eastmont pitcher Elizabeth Heinz) some credit – she plays with a lot of our girls in the summer, so we know her,” Hofheins said. “ ... she hit some pitches there with two strikes and had us a little bit befuddled. You’ve got to tip your cap to her, she pitched really well.”

The Mavs and Wildcats finished the regular season tied atop the Big-Nine with 11-1 records in league play. Next week’s district tournament will be held at Eastmont due to the coin flip tiebreaker.

“It’s weird to be co-league champs, and then be in a funk because you lost,” Hofheins said. “I’m not worried about our girls responding. We’ve had a couple games where we laid an egg before this year and we responded. I’m confident we’ll be ready to go on Saturday.”

Before the tournament, Moses Lake will host Royal for a non-league contest on Monday.

“Our girls are competitors, so they’re going to be working hard this week,” Hofheins said. “We've got a great game Monday against Royal, which is great for us and them. Any time you can get some good competition, that’s awesome. We’re excited to host them on Monday and use it as an opportunity to get better. Iron sharpens iron.”

First pitch between the Mavs and Knights is at 4 p.m.

“This team is so competitive, and we hate to lose,” Raegen Hofheins said. “It puts a fire underneath us – we’re ready to go, we want to win.”

Box Scores

Game One

EM: 0-0-0-0-0-0-0 0

ML: 0-0-0-0-0-0-1 1

Game Two

EM: 2-0-0-2-1-2-1 8

ML: 1-0-0-0-1-0-0 2