Nae Stalcup has a new favorite bat — her coach’s bat.
Swinging the bat of Prairie head coach Mariah Dawson, Stalcup belted two home runs in the Falcons’ 10-0 win over Evergreen on Monday, clinching the 3A Greater St. Helens League title for Prairie.
“That’s not my bat,” Stalcup said. “That’s Mariah’s bat because my bat’s dead. So I when I hit those off that bat, it felt nice.”
Stalcup hit a two-run home run to left in the first inning. She capped things with a three-run blast in the fourth. Mackenzie Moore added a two-run homer in the second.
But the Falcons didn’t really need any of those homers after Payton Blunt’s RBI double gave Prairie a 1-0 lead in the first.
Rylee Wall retired 15 of the 16 batters she faced in a five-inning no-hitter. A fourth-inning walk was the only thing between Wall and a perfect outing. She struck out five.
“She did really good,” said Stalcup, Prairie’s catcher. “I like (her) changeups. The other team did not.”
Wall said: “I feel like we’re playing really, really well. The bats have been on almost every single game recently, and our defense is just really tight right now.”
Since falling to Evergreen 3-1 on March 29, the Falcons have won 8 of 10, averaging seven runs a game in those eight wins. In Prairie’s previous win, the Falcons outslugged Ridgefield 12-9.
“Each year, I feel like our girls start out slow at the beginning of the year,” Dawson said. “And towards the end, we get a lot better and our bats come through. We start playing like we know how. So that’s what I expected today after the Ridgefield win to be honest. Our bats were on fire (against Ridgefield), and we took that in today, and our bats were on fire again today.”
The loss puts Evergreen (10-10, 5-2 3A GSHL) in a must-win situation Wednesday against Heritage to avoid being the No. 3 seed to the bi-district tournament next week in Lacey. Wednesday’s winner will be the No. 2 seed.
Prairie (12-5, 7-1) will look to keep the bats hot against two quality pitchers – Union’s McKinley Ermshar and Tumwater’s Ella Ferguson – later this week to cap the regular season.
“That why we scheduled it in the order that we did – to get us ready for that postseason,” Dawson said. “It will be good to face two good pitchers.”
