Wednesday, May 20, 2009

WRHS softball grabs fourth-place hardware in Panhandle

Engel pitches WRHS to two wins at Post Falls


By JEFF CORDES
Express Staff Writer

Wood River High School head softball coach Dale Martin minced no words after his spunky Wolverines won two of the three games they played at Post Falls Friday and earned the fourth-place trophy in the State 4A tournament.

"I think this is the best softball team Wood River has ever had," said Martin about a program that dates back 17 years and has been to seven state tournaments. Martin has coached with WRHS softball since 1998 and has been head coach for the past five years.

"It's a team that doesn't quit. They make mistakes but they battle," he said.

Wood River (16-12) battled back from a disappointing opening-round 7-6 loss to defending champion Kuna Thursday and won twice Friday—1-0 over Pocatello and 12-4 over Lakeland of Rathdrum. In its third game Friday, Wood River lost 8-3 to eventual State 4A champion Mountain Home.

Pitching every game at state, just as she started and finished 27 of the 28 Wolverine games this spring, was senior righthander Samantha Engel, who is planning to study engineering at Gonzaga University.

Allowing 10 earned runs in 28 innings of pitching at state along with 29 strikeouts and 10 walks, Engel was a tower of strength for a young group of Hailey starters featuring two freshmen, four sophomores, one junior and two seniors.

Engel (16-11, 37-32 career) was simply marvelous in the biggest game of Wood River's season Friday—her fifth shutout of the season, 1-0 over Pocatello. She allowed four hits, whiffed eight and walked three. It was Engel's third win in three tries over Pocatello this year, games won by scores of 5-0, 7-1 and 1-0.

Martin said, "Engel pitched a great game, and her catcher Alex Lindbloom had the game-winning hit in the fifth inning on what was supposed to be an intentional walk."

Friday's 1-0 victory was a pivotal game that determined whether the Wolverines would make the long trip home from northern Idaho with an 0-2 record, or whether they'd stay and play for hardware. They stayed. And they played pretty well.

In fact, Martin said the Wolverines played their best game of the eight-team fast-pitch tournament later Friday in their 11-hit, 12-4 win over Lakeland (19-14). He said, "We had all the elements of softball—pitching, defense and timely hitting. Engel had a home run and Lindbloom continued her hot hitting."

Top batters were Engel (3 hits, 2 runs, 3 RBI), Lindbloom (2 doubles, 3 RBI), senior Angela Coleman (2 runs, 2 RBI) and Madison Gove (double, 2 runs). Hailey scored six runs in the first and never let up.

Most observers know the hotbed of 4A softball strength in Idaho is the Treasure Valley around Boise, judging by that area's eight state titles in the nine years the 4A softball tourney has been contested. This year was no exception. The three 3rd District teams ended up first, second and third.

Behind the command of 16-year junior fireballer Nickayla Skinner (24-2, 14 shutouts), she of the four pitches and 66 miles per hour fastball, Mountain Home (26-5) won its first-ever State 4A tournament title.

The Tigers stormed through the back door after a 2-1 loss to Kuna and won five straight, including 2-1 and 10-2 wins over Emmett (21-11) in Saturday's championship games of the double elimination tourney.

Martin said, "I'd rate Skinner and Engel as the two best pitchers in the tournament."

They were matched in Friday's 8-3 Mountain Home win over Wood River. Engel ran out gas in the sixth inning when the Tigers scored four times to stretch their 4-0 lead to 8-0.

Martin said, "The long day and third game of the day took its toll. And Skinner was rested. She didn't have to pitch for Mountain Home in its 16-5 win over Preston right before."

Wood River (6 hits) managed three runs against Skinner (11 strikeouts) in the sixth. That was a week's work against Skinner, who yielded only six runs in her four other games at state and entered state with an ERA well under 1.00. Engel (2 hits, double), Taylor Gove (double, 2 RBI) and Josie Dawson (single, RBI) got to Skinner.

The way Wood River finished the tournament was better than how the three-day meet started Thursday.

Eventual third-place Kuna (21-14-1) scored five runs in the sixth for a 7-1 lead, and that turned out to be just enough when slow-starting Wood River scored five in the home seventh and fell short in the 7-6 loss.

The Kuna win snapped a six-game Wood River winning streak during which the Wolverines outscored opponents by a 35-4 margin—certainly the best late-season achievement in 17 years of Wood River softball.

"We didn't play well," said Martin about the Kuna game. "We had three errors, two of them leading to five unearned runs. I think we were a little nervous, and we missed having K.T. (Martinez, the sure-handed outfielder and leadoff hitter who competed Thursday at state track in Boise and joined the team in north Idaho for Friday's three games)."

He added, "Sam pitched well enough to win against Kuna, and we came back with five in the seventh. But we struck out 14 times, which wasn't good. Sam went 2-for-2 with a double, and Madison (Gove) had two doubles and 3 RBI. Angela had a two-run single to make it 7-6 but we couldn't tie it up."

Last weekend was the third time a Wood River softball team has won twice at state. The Wolverines also placed fourth with a 2-2 record at Pocatello in 2003 and finished with a school-record 23-9 season mark, behind the pitching of Aubrey Kirtley (23-9 career). Wood River was 2-2 for third place in 1995 when state was contested in slow-pitch softball.




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