Royal fastpitch defeats Naches Valley 17-0
IAN BIVONA | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 4 years, 4 months AGO
Cutline Royal pitcher Kate Larsen winds up for a pitch in the Lady Knight’s May 10 game against Warden.
REBECCA PETTINGILL/COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
Ian Bivona serves as the Columbia Basin Herald’s sports reporter and is a graduate of Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama. He enjoys the behind-the-scenes stories that lead up to the wins and losses of the various sports teams in the Basin. Football is his favorite sport, though he likes them all, and his favorite team is the Jets. He lives in Soap Lake with his cat, Honey. | May 20, 2022 4:02 PM
ROYAL CITY — The Royal High School Lady Knights led an offensive barrage on Thursday night, defeating Naches Valley 17-0 in the first round of the fastpitch 1A District 5 tournament.
“We drove the ball pretty well,” Royal head coach Lisa Lawrence said. “Our pitcher — Madison Ortega-Sanchez — she really wrapped up well for us.”
Ortega-Sanchez brought the heat on Thursday, striking out 7 of the 9 batters she faced. The junior pitcher also hit two doubles in the win.
Sophomores Raegen Wardenaar and Randi Allred both recorded triples in the win, with Wardenaar’s coming at a bases-loaded at-bat with two outs.
Royal, now 14-4, will move on to face the top-seeded Zillah on Saturday in the second round of the District 5 tournament. With a berth to state on the line, Lawrence looks forward to the matchup against the Leopards.
“We know what to expect,” Lawrence said. “We’re going to focus on tightening up our defense and keep driving the ball.”
The Lady Knights have defeated Zillah twice this season by scores of 14-4 and 17-11, both from a May 9 doubleheader. Even with prior success earlier this season, Lawrence knows her team can’t afford to look past the 13-5 Leopards.
“They can be scrappy and unexpected,” Lawrence said. “We know we can’t overlook them.”
Lawrence looks to keep the team’s focus on the task at hand and translating that into wins.
“We’ve got a lot of energy, and we’re looking to keep up our momentum offensively,” Lawrence said on how the team could make a deep playoff run.
On Saturday, the Lady Knights defeated Zillah 14-2 and fell to College Place 4-2 in the District 5 finals. Despite the loss, the Royal fastpitch team is heading to the state tournament this Friday.
Ian Bivona may be reached at [email protected].
ARTICLES BY IAN BIVONA
Moses Lake boys qualify eight, girls send 11 to Mat Classic
MOSES LAKE -- Nineteen total Mavericks qualified to wrestle at the upcoming Mat Classic, with the Moses Lake girls team qualifying 11 wrestlers and the boys team sending eight wrestlers to the Tacoma Dome. The Moses Lake boys took second at districts, scoring 214.5 points at the tournament. Sunnyside won the district tournament with 278.5 points.
Basin wrestlers bound for state after districts
MOSES LAKE – District tournaments were held across the state on Friday and Saturday, where boys and girls wrestlers punched their tickets into next week’s Mat Classic in Tacoma.
Mavs defeat Sunnyside, finish third in league
Moses Lake enters districts with confidence as regular season fades
MOSES LAKE – The Mavericks closed out the regular season with a trip to Sunnyside on Thursday night, coming out on top of a closely contested game with a 67-66 win over the Grizzlies. “They’ve been playing better, scoring more,” Head Coach Craig Groth said. “We’ve been doing a little bit better job on defense in certain situations and winning games leading up to that. Even games we haven’t won, we’ve been in really close games. Our confidence is really good right now, we felt great going into the game.”