Photo by Lauren Smith/The News Tribune
WIAA Class 4A softball roundup: Jackson survives quarterfinal round full of upsets; Bothell, Skyview do not
A witness to the two hours of WIAA quarterfinal-round carnage at Columbia Playfield in Richland, Jackson softball coach Kyle Peacocke could only shake his head.
It's the Class 4A tournament. Stuff like this happens.
"It's always crazy," Peacocke said. "There are so many good teams at the 4A level."
Top-seeded Jackson, the District 1/2 champion, made it through to the state semifinals for a four consecutive postseason - but barely by defeating Rogers of Puyallup, 5-3.
Second-seeded Bothell and third-seeded Skyview did not. The 4A KingCo champions were blanked by Sarah Wright and Kentwood, 3-0. The 4A GSHL champions lost 3-1 to Glacier Peak.
The Timberwolves rallied to tie the game at 3-3 - then witnessed another big moment by shortstop Rachel Sysum.
Sysum broke the tie with a mammoth two-run home run to straightaway center field in the top of the seventh inning - No. 14 of the season.
"It’s unreal," Peacocke said. "It reminds me of 'Ice' (Iyanla Pennington) a little bit in terms of when she goes to the pate, I know we have a chance to score some runs."
Perhaps the team that has come to the forefront the quickest so far this weekend is the host school - Richland.
The Bombers crunched Moses Lake (7-1) in their opener before halting District 3/4 champion Puyallup (9-0) in the 4A quarterfinals.
"We came out smokin' and we've got great team speed," Richland coach Casey Emery said. "And our pitcher (Sophia Sams) ... was in total control the whole day."
Emery said he will spend a few minutes trying to beef up the team's home field advantage.
"I told our coaching staff to (prepare) the girls to get their friends to come out and make noise," Emery said.
Glacier Peak 3, Skyview 1: The Grizzlies took advantage of Maddie Milhorn's wildness (walk, two base hits and hit by pitch) to score the winning runs in the seventh inning.
Milhorn plunked Bri Titus with the bases loaded to give Glacier Peak a 2-1 lead - and Katelyn McCallum later added a run-scoring sacrifice fly.
Millhorn gave up three runs in seven innings, striking out 11 Grizzlies batters.
Kentwood 3, Bothell 0: There is a reason why Sarah Wright is the reigning Gatorade state player of the year - she has the ability to handcuff any lineup.
In arguably her best performance of the spring, Wright tossed a three-hitter, striking out 15 in knocking out one of the co-favorites out of the championship bracket.
Wright, an Arizona pledge, hit a solo home run in the third inning to give the Conquerors a 1-0 lead.
