Tigers open postseason with win over Prosser

EPHRATA — The No. 3 seed Tigers dominated in Thursday’s Central Washington Athletic Conference district tournament game, defeating No. 6 Prosser 14-0 in five innings. 

“We have a problem with us getting ahead of ourselves and thinking past the certain game that we’re playing, so we were really (focusing) in against Prosser so we can be prepared against East Valley this weekend,” Ephrata junior Jaemyson Durfee said. 

Junior pitcher Olivia Bicondova got the start in the circle, delivering a no-hitter in the blowout win Thursday.

“I’ve been struggling pitching-wise recently, so it was nice to come in and have a good game,” Bicondova said. “I was feeling pretty confident after the first inning, and my teammates did a really good job of picking me up and hyping me up.”

Bicondova opened up scoring in the bottom of the first inning, delivering a solo home run in Ephrata’s first at-bat of the game.

“That was a good start to the game,” Bicondova said. “It got us really hype right off the bat.”

Junior Kaydence Hector added a run on a steal of home later in the first inning, and senior Madyx Leseman pushed the lead to 3-0 on an RBI single in the bottom of the second. After junior Tori Falconer scored on another steal of home, Hector and senior Peyton Trautman drove in runs in back-to-back at-bats to extend the Tiger lead to 8-0.

“We decided to really focus on hitting,” Ephrata head coach Heather Wood said. “Making sure we’re more patient at the plate, taking our pitch and not just swinging for anything.”

Bicondova and junior Auddy Gray drove in runs on hits of their own in the bottom of the third inning, before scoring came to and with a grand slam by Durfee.

“I was just mad because I wasn’t playing as good as I thought I should have been,” Durfee said. “I was hearing from Peyton Trautman, she was out on the field at first base because she had just gotten walked, and I heard some people back behind me cheering me on — I felt like I needed to take a deep breath, and hit this ball.”

Ephrata scored 14 runs off of 12 hits and committed one error in the postseason win Thursday. Durfee led the way with four RBI, followed by Bicondova with three RBI. Bicondova, Hector and junior Jaeda Gonzalez all collected two hits in the win.

“We played really clean ball today; it’s just a great win altogether,” Wood said.

With the win, Ephrata traveled to East Valley (Yakima) for a semifinal matchup Saturday. Scores were not available in time for press deadline, but the winner advances to play either Othello or Selah in the CWAC district championship game Tuesday. The loser played Ellensburg in a loser-out game later Saturday.

“East Valley’s going to be tough but starting off strong like this is nice because now we can go into the rest of districts confident,” Bicondova said. 

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

Box score
PRO: 0-0-0-0-0 0
EPH: 2-5-7-0-X 14

    Ephrata junior Auddy Gray slides into second base in the bottom of the third inning against Prosser.
  

    Ephrata junior Olivia Bicondova pitched a no-hitter in Ephrata’s win over Prosser in the Central Washington Athletic Conference district tournament on Thursday.