Marathon day at 4A Softball after rain wreaks havoc

Camas outfielder Emma Carroll trotted toward the dugout after her third game of Saturday’s marathon State Class 4A softball tournament game.
“Are we playing this next one tomorrow?” she asked with an impish grin, speaking for every dog-tired player left standing.
Rain washed out all but four of Friday’s scheduled games. Skyview, Battle Ground and Camas did not play on the first day and each started with an 8 a.m. opener.
Battle Ground, which lost to Skyview for the bi-district championship last week, played five games Saturday, falling to Redmond, 3-1 in what turned out to be the third-place game after tournament officials canceled the scheduled game to decide third- and fourth-place and instead awarded two third-place trophies.
The Tigers had the bases loaded in the sixth inning with one out, but a hard grounder to second base allowed the Mustangs to cut down the runner at the plate and the Redmond third baseman, drawn in with the sacks full, barely snared a hard liner to end the game and the threat.
That was a lot of games,” Battle Ground coach Arielle Wiser said. “I was impressed by the way our kids just kept battling.
“We found a way to score runs all day and then in the sixth it just didn’t happen. We hit the ball hard, but just couldn’t score the runs.”
The Tigers’ pitcher, sophomore Mallory Meyer, worked every inning of all five games, holding Redmond on three runs in her fifth straight start.
Battle Ground was shutout in its opener, 7-0 by Chiawana, making its next four games win-or-go-home.
“It’s tough when you lose your first game and have to play more games,” Wiser said. “I was so impressed with the way Mallory kept firing. She just competed hard.”
The Tigers beat Moses Lake, 12-8 before Meyer shutout Puyallup, 3-0. They needed to rally from a 2-0 deficit to beat rival Camas, 5-3, before falling to Redmond.
“It’s tough to play those teams from our area because we know each other so well,” Wiser said. “We know what’s coming.”
Skyview won its opener, knocking off Rogers of Puyallup, 9-7, but got thumped by eventual finalist Lake Stevens, 12-4 in the quarterfinals and sent home by Camas in a tight loser-out game.
Camas may have had a rebuilding year under first-year coach Mandy Cervantes, but the Papermakers still made a deep run.
The Papermakers pushed defending state champion Jackson to extra innings in the tournament opener before losing a 3-2 decision – giving the Timberwolves their only scare of the day en route to a second straight title.
Camas rebounded to knock out Central Valley, 4-2 in a loser-out game and did the same a few hours later to district champion Skyview, 2-1.
“Oh, my – that was big,” Cervantes said. “We’ve kind of gone back and forth with them this year and they came in on a big roll after winning the district. That just tells you the kind of ball we play back home.”
The teams traded runs in the first inning, but Camas got the winning run in the fourth when Emma Carroll stole two bases after reaching base on a single through the infield. Carroll went to second on a single by Madeline Ellis and raced to third on a lazy throw to second from the outfield.
“She is a very aggressive baserunner,” Cervantes said. “There are a couple players that I give the green light to run. She’s one of them.”
Carroll kept creeping in from third, and when Skyview catcher Lauren Johnson casually tossed the ball back to pitcher Addi MacPherson she broke for home. The pitcher’s throw was on the money, but it got to the catcher’s glove just as Carroll slid in and it caromed to the backstop.
The Papermakers made the run stand up by turning double plays to end three consecutive innings to close the game out.
Against Battle Ground the Papermakers took a quick 2-0 lead, but Meyer only allowed a home run by Sophie Franklin the rest of the way.