The Woodland Beavers never expected they would be defending their state softball championship like this.
They figured they would have their ace in the pitching circle all season, you know, the one who has signed from this small town in the Northwest to pitch for Nebraska in the Big Ten.
Instead, they had to deal with an arm injury that has left Emily Holt unable to pitch for now.
And all the Beavers have done is win 18 in a row after dropping their first game of the season to Class 3A traditional power Prairie.
Sophomore Makalya Lefever has stepped into the circle and has gotten the job done. So, too, has freshman pitcher Nicolette Nesbitt.
Behind them is a defense that makes just about every routine play, and makes the tough plays look routine. The Beavers spend a lot of time in practice on defense, even this late in the season.
The ball snaps into the glove of Kelsey Haynes, at first base, as the Beavers go through an infield drill.
“It’s an everyday thing,” said Rikki Hall, who plays second base. “We work on the same thing, every day.”
If winning never gets boring, then staying sharp in practice should never get mundane.
“We come to practice every day focused,” said Holt, who has returned to the lineup as a hitter while still taking time away from any pitching chores. “We know what our goal is.”
For the players, that would be another state championship.
For their coach, well, it’s first simply trying to advance through a difficult district tournament, which begins Thursday.
“They’ve exceeded my expectations right now,” Damon Yeo said. “We’re playing great defense. We’ve had to. Last year, we didn’t have to play a lot of defense compared to this year.”
More balls are in play with a younger pitcher. But because of that, this team might be a better all-around squad. The players still believed in themselves, but they also knew that in order to make up for the loss of Holt, they would have to work that much harder.
“It’s paid off,” Yeo said. “We’re comfortable with our defense, and we’re hitting really well.
“We know it’s going to be really tough, but we have high expectations. We’ll be disappointed if we don’t make it back to state.”
Senior right fielder Kylie Moses has her own special reasons why the Beavers must make it to state, then win it.
“I wasn’t part of it last year because I was injured,” she said. “I want it this year.”
Holt felt pain in her throwing arm early in the season and tried to play through it, but then thought better of the situation.
It was determined she had some tissue on her biceps tendon that was causing the discomfort. Medical advice was to shut it down this spring and go through physical therapy.
Holt said she is planning on pitching by the end of the month, to get ready for summer ball, but she said she will not pitch for the Beavers.
“I don’t think that would be really fair anyway,” Holt said. “Mak has done an awesome job.”
As in Makayla Lefever.
“There was a lot of pressure at first,” Lefever said. “I just had to come in focused and try to do my best and go from there.”
Her teammates said they never panicked.
“I trust Makayla, for sure,” Hall said.
Woodland completed an undefeated 2A Greater St. Helens League record the other day when Lefever tossed a one-hit shutout with eight strikeouts against second-place Mark Morris.
Still, the competition only gets tougher from here. This season, three teams will advance out of district instead of four. And every team on Woodland’s schedule will be targeting the defending champions.
That does not deter the Beavers.
“My expectations are to win state again,” Haynes said. “If we don’t meet our expectations, it’s going to be a huge letdown.”
The Woodland Beavers are in defense of a title, even if this was not the original design of that defense.
Paul Valencia covers high school sports for The Columbian. He can be reached at 360-735-4557 or e-mail at paul.valencia@columbian.com
