MONTESANO — The Wishkah Valley Loggerettes got two big home runs from Abbi Van Blaircom, but not much else offensively as they fell to Quilcene 6-5 in the 1B District IV championship game on Saturday at Montesano High School.
Just a half hour after arriving from competing at the Washington High School Equestrian Teams State Meet in Moses Lake, Van Blaricom drove the first pitch she saw from Rangers pitcher Abby Weller over the wall in right-centerfield for a two-run home run in the top of the first inning.
But the Rangers (14-6 overall) responded — a theme seen throughout the game — by scoring a run on back-to-back two-out doubles from Erin Macedo and Sydney Brown to make it a 2-1 game.
After Quilcene tied the game at 2-2 in the second, Van Blaricom was back at it in the top of the third. The junior catcher stepped to the dish with one out and teammates Megan Hill and Erica Bomhoff on base.
Van Blaricom worked the count to 2-2 before blasting a Weller pitch out over the left-field fence for a three-run no-doubter that gave the Loggerettes a 5-2 lead.
“I had a pretty tough weekend over at Moses Lake with the horses and all, so I thought, ‘We’re going to come in and have fun and we’re going to fight,’” Van Blaricom said of her thoughts entering the game. “When I saw that first pitch (on the first home run) I thought, ‘Oh, there it is.’ I took a nice, easy, flat swing and it went over. I was actually pretty surprised with that.”
“She gives her heart and soul to the game,” Wishkah Valley head coach Tove Reibel said of Van Blaricom. “She’s the true leader of our team and we appreciate that because she really gets the girls pumped up and moving.”
In the bottom half of the frame, last season’s state runner-ups got to within a run off consecutive run-scoring doubles from Macedo and Brown to make it a one-run game again at 5-4.
The Loggerettes threatened in the top of the fifth inning when Megan Hill tripled with one out, but after Bomhoff hit a short pop-out to third baseman Katie Love, Quilcene head coach Mark Thompson made the decision to take the bat out of Van Blaricom’s hands by intentionally walking her. Weller then got Mackenzie Robertson looking on a called third strike to end the threat.
The lack of execution by the Wishkah Valley offense proved costly, as the Rangers took the lead the next half-inning when Macedo hit a two-run homer to left field for a 6-5 Quilcene advantage.
The Rangers threatened to add another run in the bottom of the sixth when Pearl Munn tried to score on a base hit to center field by Allie Speer, but Wishkah Valley centerfielder Aleah Clevenger threw a rope to Van Blaricom at home, who applied the tag to cut down the run at the plate.
But Wishkah couldn’t solve Weller late in the game, as the right-hander retired the side in the sixth on just three pitches and struck out Bomhoff in the seventh with the tying run on first base to end the game, stranding Van Blaricom in the on-deck circle.
“We weren’t really sure what to expect,” Thompson, whose team beat the Loggerettes 10-2 in last season’s district opener, said of his opponents after the game. “(Wishkah Valley) came in and battled. They are gritty, tough and they want to win. They gave us everything they had and we were able to come through.”
“I’m real proud of them. This was a good game,” Loggerettes head coach Tove Reibel said of her team. “We’ve played them in the districts for several years and have never gotten this close. … I’m really glad we came out and showed that we could be competitive.”
Wishkah Valley now looks to the 1B State Tournament which is set to begin on Friday at the Gateway Sports Complex in Yakima.
“We are heading to state and second in district and we’re all pretty proud of that,” Van Blaricom said. “We’re going to fight our hardest, see what we can do and be the team we know we can be.”
Wishkah Valley 203 000 0 — 5 6 1
Quilcene 112 020 x — 6 11 0
WP — Weller; LP — Bomhoff
Leading Hitters: WV — Van Blaricom (2-2, 2 HR, 5 RBI), Hill (3-3, 3B, 2 R); Q — Macedo (3-3, 2 2B, HR, 4 RBI), Brown (2-3, 2 2B, 2 RBI)
