SPOKANE — If you lose a game at the Class 4A softball state tournament, the road to redemption gets longer and harder.
The Camas Papermakers found redemption Saturday, winning two elimination games to earn a fourth-place trophy after falling to Monroe 8-5 in the third-place game.
The Camas Papermakers reached the quarterfinal round Friday, when they lost to eventual state champion Woodinville in a pitcher’s duel, 3-1.
The team rebounded Saturday to beat Rogers of Puyallup, 5-4 to get back on the winning track, then knocked off Inglemoor of Kentmore, 8-2 to reach the trophy round.
In the game to decide third place, Camas lost an 8-5 decision to Monroe, the team that Woodinville beat in the semifinals.
The Papermakers got a stellar performance all tournament long from junior pitcher Kennedy Ferguson.
“It feels good to have the lead in the last inning,” she said. “I have a good defense behind me and I know they’re going to help me out and we can get the job done.”
Coach Dale Lunde said he got a little worried when Ferguson shook off his pitch suggestion early in the game when the Vikings took the lead.
“I never mind it when she shakes me off like that and she’s right,” he said. “That’s about 95 percent of the time. But when she’s not …”
Ferguson just smiled.
“The thing is, I have a better angle on what’s working and what isn’t,” she explained. “When you’re on the sideline, you don’t have the greatest angle on what the umpire is calling.”
Ferguson shut out Rogers for five innings in Camas’ first game Saturday before the Rams rallied to take a 4-2 lead in the sixth, taking the lead on a three-run home run.
But the Papermakers responded with three runs in the bottom of the sixth.
Ferguson and Payton Bates got the rallied going with singles, and Alyssa Tomasini’s two-run double tied the game 4-4. Abi Wong’s RBI single scored the go-ahead run.
In the seventh, Ferguson worked around a walk and a single to seal the win.
Ferguson had a good day with the bat as well, going 6 for 9 with a double and three RBI.
Tomasini was 5 for 11 with two runs and two RBI.
Woodinville won the tournament by beating Puyallup, 3-0, in a game dominated by two top-notch pitchers.
The Falcons scored the winning run on a squeeze bunt in the top of the sixth inning, then added a pair of insurance runs on a bloop single that landed just behind the bag at first base.
