SPORTS
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, MAY 20, 2016
7A
Lady Fishermen go down
swinging in playoff loss
By GARY HENLEY
The Daily Astorian
It had all the markings of
another classic comeback victory
for the Astoria softball team. The
only thing missing for the Lady
Fishermen was the ‘W.’
For the most part, the Lady
Fish did all the right things
Wednesday afternoon. They
made all the right plays and
even outhit their playoff oppo-
nents at CMH Field.
But in the end, the late-game
dramatics belonged to Hidden
Valley, as the Mustangs posted
a thrilling 4-3 playoff win on
the artiicial turf.
There was nothing artii-
cial about the intensity of the
game, however. The Class 4A
Regional Play-in was a win-
ner-to-state, loser-out contest.
And it came down to the
bottom of the seventh, with
two outs and the bases loaded
in a one-run ball game.
Despite the loss, the Lady
Fish took another big step for-
ward this season as the pro-
gram entered a new era.
“We beat the teams we
were supposed to beat, and we
played well against the tough
teams,” said Astoria irst-year
coach Junior Israel.
“That senior group (start-
ers Mykka Abrahams, Libby
Di Bartolomeo and Taylor
Mickle) is going to be tough
replace,” he said. “They played
together for so long. And you
throw Rylee (DeMander) and
Caitlyn (Hougham) in there
with them, they’ve played a lot
games together.”
And the last game came
down to just a few key hits,
key plays and key pitches.
More heartache for Astoria,
because with few exceptions,
the Lady Fish had the key hits,
made the key plays and had a
solid effort in the circle from
Di Bartolomeo.
The Mustangs simply made
the last play.
Gary Henley/The Daily Astorian
Astoria players welcome teammate Taylor Mickle, left, to
home plate, following Mickle’s two-run homer in the third
inning of Thursday’s softball loss to Hidden Valley.
SCOREBOARD
PREP SCHEDULE
TODAY
Baseball — 4A Regional Play-
in: Sweet Home at Astoria, 4:30
p.m., Aiken Field
Track — OSAA State Meet,
Hayward Field, Eugene, TBA
SATURDAY
Track — OSAA State Meet,
Hayward Field, Eugene, TBA
SOFTBALL
Hidden Valley 4, Astoria 3
H.Valley 200 200 0—4 6 2
Astoria 002 010 0—3 7 0
W: Shayla Lawson (3 K’s, 1
With the bases loaded and
two outs, pitcher Shayla Law-
son ielded a grounder back to
the circle, threw to the catcher,
who stepped on the plate for
the inal force out to end the
game.
“Coming into the game,
if someone had told me (the
Mustangs) would only score
four runs, I would have taken
that,” Israel said. “We just had
way too many lyouts today.
“We played a lawless game
defensively, and we didn’t
have a whole lot of missed
opportunities,” he said.
Astoria inished with seven
hits to Hidden Valley’s six,
and played errorless ball in the
walk). L: Libby Di Bartolomeo (2
K’s, 1 walk). RBI: HV, Coates 2,
Sheely 2; Ast, Mickle 2, Lyngstad.
2B: HV, Norberg. 3B: HV, Coates.
HR: Ast, Mickle. LOB: Hidden Val-
ley 2, Astoria 4.
Clatskanie 5, Warrenton 4
Warrenton 110 020 0—4 6 1
Clatskanie 100 000 4—5 9 3
W: MacKenzie Mitchell (4 K’s, 0
walks). L: Niqui Blodgett (5 K’s, 4
walks). RBI: War, Blodgett, Arm-
strong; Cla, Warren 3, Jackson 2.
3B: War, Blodgett; Cla, Strong. HR:
Cla, Warren. HBP: War, Little, Kade-
ra. LOB: Warrenton 2, Clatskanie 4.
ield (the Mustangs had two
errors).
Making her inal appear-
ance at CMH, Di Bartolomeo
settled down after a rough
irst inning and out-pitched
Lawson.
Hidden Valley’s Jeydawn
Coates had the irst big hit of
the game, a two-out triple that
scored Annabelle Perdue and
Brayanna Norberg for a quick
2-0 lead in the top of the irst.
After Coates’s triple,
Di Bartolomeo retired nine
straight.
Meanwhile, the Fisher-
men tied the game (with an
exclamation point), as Tay-
lor Mickle blasted a two-run
homer to left ield in the bot-
tom of the third.
The Mustangs regained the
lead in the top of the fourth, as
Abby Contreras drew a two-
out walk, Hailey Miller sin-
gled to center, and both run-
ners scored on a single up the
middle by Megan Sheely.
Astoria answered right
back in the ifth, as Kelsey
Wullger had a leadoff hit, and
scored from second on a single
to left by Lexi Lyngstad.
But that would be the inal
run for the Lady Fish.
Hougham had a leadoff
single in the sixth, but was
stranded when Lawson retired
the next three in order; and
Astoria loaded the bases in
the bottom of the seventh on a
two-out single by Lyngstad, a
walk to Mickle and an inield
hit by DeMander, before the
inal force out play.
“All I wanted to do was
get Taylor to the plate again,”
Israel said.
But after a quick timeout,
Lawson proceeded to walk
Mickle on ive pitches.
“They had a conference,
and I’m sure that’s what they
said,” Israel said, referring
to the walk. “Taylor is going
to be irreplaceable. But how
’bout that Lyngstad? She’s
tough, always coming up with
hits in clutch spots.”
Astoria inishes 16-11
overall, while Hidden Valley
(fourth place out of the Sky-
line Conference), improves to
12-13 and advances to play
next Wednesday in a irst
round state playoff game.
As for the Lady Fish, “We’re
going to ‘young up’ next year,”
Israel said. “But we’ve got
three really good juniors (Abi
Danen, DeMander, Hougham)
returning, and I know we have
a good freshmen group com-
ing in.”
For Astoria softball and
the building of a winning pro-
gram, to be continued …
Tiger rally drops
Warrenton, 5-4
By GARY HENLEY
The Daily Astorian
CLATSKANIE — The
Warrenton softball team
was three outs away from
advancing to the Class 3A
state playoffs.
But fate was not with the
Lady Warriors Wednesday
afternoon at Clatskanie, as
the Tigers rallied with four
runs in the bottom of the
seventh for a 5-4 victory in
the Lewis & Clark League
playoff.
A single by Maris Jackson
scored MacKenzie Mitchell
and Olivia Warren with the
winning runs, helping Clats-
kanie earn the L&C’s No. 2
seed to state.
Warrenton scored a run in
each of the irst two innings,
and led 2-1 through four.
The Warriors tacked on
two more runs in the top of
the ifth, as Niqui Blodgett’s
double scored Landree
Miethe, and Lilly Thomas
(running for Blodgett) scored
on an error.
Warren had three RBIs
on three hits for the Tigers,
including a home run in the
irst inning.
Mitchell got the win in the
circle, as she allowed six hits
with four strikeouts and no
walks.
Blodgett struck out ive
with four walks, while team-
mate Landree Miethe was
3-for-4 at the plate, to go
with three stolen bases and
two runs scored.
Miethe inished the sea-
son with a .613 batting aver-
age, a new school record
(breaking the .603 mark of
her cousin, Mady Hanna).
With another year to go,
Miethe also holds the record
for career hits (114), over
Gracie Smith (94); and has
the season and career runs
scored records (42 and 89,
respectively) previously held
by Shaena Stabler.
The Warriors inish 9-18
overall, while Clatskanie
improves to 21-6.
“I don’t think many of us
expected the improvement
we saw over this season,”
said Warrenton coach Staci
Miethe. “This team was by
far the most improved of my
career. With limited experi-
ence and softball knowledge,
they were able to make it to
three outs away from going to
the state tournament,” some-
thing only four other Warren-
ton softball teams have done
in school history, “and all of
those didn’t ield eight under-
classmen,” she said.
“This team is returning
every starter,” said coach
Miethe, whose team had four
sophomores and four fresh-
men in the starting lineup.
“The two of the three oth-
ers who saw signiicant play-
ing time are also freshmen,
so this team has a bright
future.
“It has been a pleasur-
able challenge to coach such
a young group of girls in a
tough league like ours,” she
said, “but the challenge has
made us all stronger, both
mentally and physically and
I am certain next season is
going to bring great things
for the program.”
‘ This team is
returning every starter.
... So, this team has a
bright future.’
Staci Miethe
Warrenton coach
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