Huskies 10-run Toppenish to win district play-in

OTHELLO — The Othello Huskies (9-11) move on in the 2A District 5 tournament after earning a 10-0 win over Toppenish during a windy Wednesday afternoon. With this victory, the Huskies head into a two-game series on the road in Yakima. 

“I think it went well; everyone had their spirits up and their energy, so it was a good game,” said Huskies senior Maylen Valdez. “Obviously with the weather we had a lot of errors, but we picked up and we did good in the end.” 

Both teams had a slow start as neither Othello nor Toppenish scored in the first two innings. The Huskies finally got on the board in the bottom of the third as Evony Gomez grounded out and Alizay Pruneda doubled with each scoring a run.

The Huskies extended their lead in the fourth inning when Amelia Vega hit a groundout, which allowed Jena DeLeon to score.  

Othello went on a tear in the fifth inning, starting with Pruneda drawing a walk that scored a run, then Alexa Prochet grounded out to score a run, an error scored a run, Kenzie Martinez doubled to score two runs, Vega singled to score a run and Bethany Zamora singled to score a run. With these seven runs, the Huskies closed out their game to win 10-0. 

Prochet pitched all five innings for the Huskies where she threw 10 strikeouts while allowing zero hits, zero runs and zero walks. 

“I liked how it went,” said Huskies Head Coach Dominique Martinez. “The team was just doing what they normally do.” 

With the Huskies winning this play-in game, they are now one step closer to getting into state and with that comes more room to improve before facing tough opponents down the stretch. 

Martinez said Othello had some lessons in their baserunning Wednesday, which is something that the team has been working on at practice. While there were moments that the team was successful in their baserunning, there were others that she would like the team to still touch up on as they continue through the postseason. 

Another aspect of the game that will be crucial to their success is being more aggressive at the plate, said the coach. Moving forward, she wants to see the players be less shy about what they swing at. 

“I’m just trying to have them break that open,” said Martinez. “If we can start hitting the first strike and putting it in play, that benefits us more rather than waiting and getting ourselves in the hole.”  

Valdez said going into Saturday’s games, Othello is going to need the right energy and properly communicate with one another on the field. As the team aims for state, the senior said she wants her and fellow senior Alizay Pruneda to continue to be inspirations to the younger players as they learn and battle alongside each other in the upcoming games. 

“Going on to these next few games, it’s semi challenging, but we have good talent on our team, we have good energy, so we’re ready for anything,” she said. 

The Huskies next game will be against Ellensburg at East Valley High School Saturday at 11 a.m. The winner of that game will go on to play East Valley at 1 p.m. 

BOX SCORE 

TPPN: 0-0-0-0-0: 0 

OTHL: 0-0-2-1-7: 10

    Alexa Prochet from Othello throws a pitch to the Toppenish batter during Wednesday’s game.
  

    Bethany Zamora from the Huskies runs toward home plate to score during Othello’s win over Toppenish.
  

    Othello’s Jena DeLeon stands ready to catch the ball on the diamond against Toppenish.
  

    Huskies player Amelia Vega starts to sprint for first base after making a hit that scored a run.
  

    Evony Gomez from the Huskies takes a swing to hit the ball Wednesday afternoon against Toppenish.