File photo of Kuirstin Pilkinton by Mike Maltais
BY MIKE MALTAIS
The Liberty Bell High School varsity girls’ softball team went down swinging before two of the state’s top B teams at the state playoffs at the Gateway Sports Complex in Yakima Saturday (May 25). The Lady Lions lost to eventual No. 2 Northwest Christian, 12-2, in the morning round and came up short against third-place Napavine, 7-0, in an afternoon game.
Rain delayed the scheduled Friday start of the state round and robbed the girls of what practice time remained before meeting their first opponent.
“We got a couple of runs right off the bat and led Northwest Christian, 2-1,at the end of the first inning,” said coach Lee Pilkinton.
But together with a deep roster of solid hitters the Crusaders also included a caliber of pitching the Liberty Bell girls hadn’t experienced before arriving at state.
“We just hadn’t seen that quality of a pitcher this year,” Pilkinton admitted.
The high-velocity deliveries kept the batters’ timing off-balance and held the Lady Lions to just three hits on the game, one apiece from Katherine Tannehill, Baylee Canedo and Cierra Ebbert.
“A lot of Northwest’s runs were from good solid hits,” Pilkinton said, and those offered little opportunity for Liberty Bell’s defense to make a difference.
“Any defensive plays that we could make, we made,” the coach added.
With just one sub on the 10-girl squad, the Lady Lions were facing larger lineups of 16 to 18 players apiece.
“That gave the other teams the ability to focus on their nines,” Pilkinton said of the starters and subs.
Even though Napavine fielded a pitcher “every bit as good as Northwest Christian had,” said Pilkinton, the Lady Lions were able to adjust more to the speed of the pitches and tagged the mound for seven hits in the second game.
“We held them scoreless through the first three innings,” the coach said before the Tigers scored their first run in the fourth.
“We just couldn’t get the timely hits when we needed them,” Pilkinton added.
Against Napavine, Tannehill, Canedo and Julie McMillan hit a single apiece. Ebbert smacked two singles and Kuirstin Pilkinton hit a single and a double.
“The girls were upbeat the whole time,” Pilkinton said of his team during state play.
Toutle Lake took the state title followed by Northwest Christian, Napavine and Morton/White Pass.
In addition to getting a good look at what the level of state competition demands, Liberty Bell will have nine experienced returning players next season after the loss of Ebbert, the team’s only graduating senior.
