Warriors rally from early loss

YAKIMA – The No. 5 seed Almira/Coulee-Hartline Warriors left the 1B State Softball Tournament with a fourth-place finish, rallying after a first-round loss to DeSales to reach the third/fourth-place contest against Mossyrock.

“It’s pretty incredible,” ACH Head Coach Graham Grindy said. “It’s been a great season. They played very well in league in the regular season. In districts and regionals, we had to play through some adversity and lose a game, and do what was necessary to qualify. I think that was the most impressive thing about this group, is that they came together and fought and battled.”

ACH’s first-round matchup against DeSales came less than a week after the Warriors took on the Irish in the consolation semifinals of the 1B District 6/7/9 Regional tournament, where DeSales won 10-9 in extra innings.

“The girls know them pretty well – we battled eight innings with them (in regionals), so the girls knew what they were going to face coming in,” Grindy said.

After the Irish took a 6-2 lead in the bottom of the fourth inning, they used the lead to eventually defeat ACH 10-6 in the opening round.

“This was a group of girls that had never been to state before, and sometimes when you get to that first game there’s a little bit of nerves and getting settled in,” Grindy said.

In a loser-out game against Darrington on Friday evening, the Warriors bounced back with an 11-8 win over the Loggers to meet Sunnyside Christian in the consolation semifinals, where the Warriors won 12-1.

“We just kind of gritted through that game, Darrington was a tough team,” Grindy said. “The next day when we played Sunnyside – that was the best game that we played all season. I don’t think we had a single error. Team defense was great, and (we had) clutch hitting with runners in scoring position.”

ACH totaled 23 combined hits across the games against Darrington and Sunnyside Christian.

“For this group, when they were mentally checked in and focused, mentally checking in with each other and backing each other up, that’s when they played their best,” Grindy said. “That’s really fueled us throughout this run. They were very focused.”

The back-to-back wins advanced the Warriors to a third/fourth-place game against Mossyrock, where both squads traded blows through seven innings. ACH led 11-3 after midway through the fourth inning, but a seven-run bottom of the fourth and a six-run bottom of the sixth allowed the Vikings to take third place in the 1B State Softball Tournament with a 17-12 win.

“I told them in between innings, ‘It’s a heavyweight fight,’” Grindy said. “‘Nobody wants to lose the last game.’ We made some mistakes, but that was a game that could have gone either way. Kind of like who runs out of gas first.”

Warrior senior Prairie Parrish and junior Shaina Beal combined for 15 hits and 17 RBI over the course of ACH’s four state tournament games.

“They’re our two first-team all-league players, and they played like it,” Grindy said. “It was pretty special to watch.”

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