Mavs defeat Royal 4-0 in non-league matchup

MOSES LAKE — The Mavericks closed out the regular season with a non-league win over the Royal Knights on Monday, celebrating the team’s seniors with a 4-0 win.

“They’re just such good humans,” Moses Lake Head Coach Mike Hofheins said. “That’s a quality group of senior young women. Besides being good softball players, good teammates and good friends, they’re going to be good spouses one day, they’re going to be good youth softball coaches and good employees. They like to practice, they like to work hard, they like to cheer on their teammates. They’re a joy to coach.”

Three Moses Lake seniors – Jazlynn Torres, Ali Stanley and Katelyn Kriete – will continue their softball careers at Wenatchee Valley College, Big Bend Community College and Spokane Falls Community College, respectively.

“It’s pretty cool, it’s a testament to the softball talent that we have in this community,” Hofheins said. “It starts super young, and a lot of kids play. They’re good. I wish them nothing but success.”

After two scoreless innings, Moses Lake struck first when senior Marissa Cohee and junior Raegen Hofheins scored off the bat of Stanley, who reached first base on an error in the bottom of the third inning. In the next at-bat, Torres’ RBI single sent Stanley home.

“I was like, ‘Let’s not strike out again,’” Torres said with a laugh. “I just put the bat on the ball. Ali (Stanley) is pretty fast, so she got home. It was a good feeling.”

The three runs came with two outs on the board, something Moses Lake repeated in the bottom of the fourth when Raegen Hofheins hit an RBI single to send home junior Kendall Reffett with two outs on the board.

“We scored several runs with two outs, which was super clutch,” Mike Hofheins said. “Their pitcher (Madison Ortega-Sanchez), they were pitching tough. We battled, grinded some at-bats out and we had timely hitting today. We scratched enough across to make it last.”

Moses Lake pitcher Morgan Ross held the Knights to zero runs in her six innings in the circle, and sophomore Paige Richardson closed out the game in the top of the seventh.

“It’s such a great opportunity to play such a great team,” Hofheins said. “(Royal) is really, really a good team. They would challenge for a league title if they were in the Big-Nine. They’d be right there with us and Eastmont. They’re solid, fundamentally sound and it’s great for us today going into districts.”

Ross struck out eight batters in six innings, surrendering three hits.

“I felt pretty good, it’s a little weird going against all my friends,” Ross said. “I had good defense behind me.”

Moses Lake travels to East Wenatchee on Saturday for the Columbia Basin Big-Nine district tournament, where they face Eastmont in the title game at 11 a.m. The Mavs split last week’s doubleheader against the Wildcats with a 1-0 win and an 8-2 loss.

“It’s really nice (to get the win), especially coming off the game against Eastmont,” Torres said. “It was a little tough, but this really set us up for districts.”

Monday was the third time this season that Royal (1A) played a non-league game against a 4A school, previously splitting with Eastmont (7-4 loss on March 30 and a 1-0 win on May 9).

“We’re here to see good competition, and Moses definitely brought it,” Royal Head Coach Lisa Lawrence said. “It’s exactly what we needed going into the postseason.”

The loss snapped a 13-game win streak for Royal, who now has a quick turnaround to Thursday’s first round of the South Central Athletic Conference district tournament.

“May has been go-time for us,” Lawrence said. “We had a slow April, so we have been dying to play more games. It’s going to be a quick turnaround, make adjustments. We’ll see a different style of pitching on Thursday and over the weekend, so it’s about making those adjustments and getting on with things.”

Lawrence isn’t concerned about the loss, she said.

“We needed to get a challenge, so I think they’re ready to rise to the occasion and see what’s coming next,” she said.

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

Box Score

ROY: 0-0-0-0-0-0-0 0

MSL: 0-0-3-1-0-0-X 4