The Heritage High softball team played well above it No. 15 seeding on Thursday, knocking down No. 2 Auburn Riverside and No. 8 Timberline at the 3A bi-district softball tournament at Lacey to clinch a berth to state for the second year in a row.
The Timberwolves (12-9) won both games by scores of 9-2, and will play No. 3 Bonney Lake in Saturday’s semifinal.
Meanwhile, Prairie and Evergreen will need to fight through the loser’s bracket on Saturday to get to state.
The big bat for Heritage was Jaila Ellis. She was a combined 7 for 7 hitting for the cycle with two home runs, a double, triple and three singles and six RBI.
It was Ellis’ solo home run in the third ining against Auburn Riverside that broke a 2-2 tie and the Timberwolves never looked back. She also got the win in the pitching circle.
Heritage scored six runs in the sixth inning to pull away from Timberline.
Prairie won its opening game over Auburn, 10-0 in five innings. Mackenzie Moore knocked in three runs with two doubles, and Payton Blunt was 3 for 3 with an RBI double.
Prairie (15-8) saw it’s seventh-inning rally fall short against Yelm in its winner-to-state game, falling 9-8. Auburn Riverside awaits Prairie on Saturday.
Evergreen won a wild first game, taking down Auburn Mountainview 17-9 thanks to a five-run fifth inning that broke a 7-7 tie. Madison Logan’s single brought in the go-ahead run and the Plainsmen added four more runs on three hits, a ground out and an error.
The Plainsmen (12-11) fell into the loser-out bracket for Saturday with a 4-1 loss to top-seed Peninsula. Evergreen will play Lakes next.
4A girls tennis
Defending 4A state singles champion Hailey Kerker placed third at the 4A bi-district tournament in Kent, but Camas rolled to a team title.
Taryn Kerker and Fiona Zhou won the doubles title for Camas as the Papermakers took the top two spots in the doubles bracket. Kerker and Zhou beat teammates Sophia Rundle and Lena Trieu in the doubles finals.
Camas scored 39 points to easily outdistance Bellarmine Prep for the team title 39-25.
Haley Kerker lost in the semifinals. Bellarmine Prep’s Lucia Moravek won the singles title, beating her sister Anya Moravek, also of Bellarmine Prep. Yvonne Yin of Camas placed fifth in singles, clinching a state berth.
Camas also sent a third doubles team to state as Chloe Liou and Angela Ye placed seventh.
2A girls tennis
Just like the 2A GSHL tournament, Columbia River won the 2A district team title behind a singles title by sophomore Emma Lungwitz and a doubles title by sisters Lauren and Sydney Dreves at Steamboat Tennis Club in Olympia.
Lungwitz topped Emily Anderson of R.A. Long for the second week in a row, but needed three sets this time. She won 6-7, 6-4, 6-2.
Also a rematch of the league final, the Dreves’ beat Jaisa Wilson and Hadley Jones of Washougal 6-0, 6-1.
The top four placers advance to 2A state next week at Seattle. Maddy Hetland of Mark Morris and Audrey Zdunich of R.A. Long qualified for state in singles, and doubles teams of Brooklyn Schlecht and Madison Noel of Mark Morris, and Olivia Swan and Shaylin Murphy of Columbia River qualified as well.
4A boys soccer
UNION 4, GONZAGA PREP 1 — Ethan Voves scored two goals and the visiting 12th-seeded Titans (13-3-1) eliminated the fifth-seeded Bullpups (14-5) in a Class 4A state tournament first-round game Wednesday night in Spokane.
Union will travel to Yakima to face No. 13 seed Davis in the quarterfinals on Saturday.
