Prep softball: W.F. West knocks out Aberdeen in two-plus hour thriller

Apr. 23—BOX SCORE

At Recreation Park

BEARCATS 15, BOBCATS 8

Aberdeen010 115 0 — 8

W.F. West315 015 X — 15

ABE Pitching — Jones 2.1 IP, 7 H, 8 R (3 ER), 1 BB, 3 SO; Kohn 3.2 IP, 9 H, 7 R (6 ER), 3 BB, 4 SO. Highlights — Neal 3-4, 2 2B, 2 RBI, R, BB; E. Kohn 3-4, 2B, RBI; Hendrickson 3-4, 2B, RBI, R, SB

WFW Pitching — Tay. Tobin 7 IP, 13 H, 8 R (5 ER), 2 BB, 6 SO. Highlights — Elam 2-4, HR, 4 RBI, 3 R, BB, SB; Coleman 2-4, 3B, 4 RBI, R, SB; Rasmussen 3-4, RBI, 3 R, 2 SB; Tan. Tobin 3-4, 3 RBI, 2 R

To be the best, you have to beat the best.

And after three complete innings on Wednesday night, the W.F. West High School softball team was on the verge of run-ruling the defending Class 2A state champions. Yet Aberdeen, even with some of its stars graduated, still has five all-league players back in the fold.

Time and time again featured hard swings early in the count by the Bobcats that routinely found gaps. In the blink of an eye, they made it a two-run game.

"We knew they were going to try to claw back," Bearcats third baseman Karlee Coleman said.

Aberdeen blinked next. W.F. West delivered the final blow.

Gracie Elam's two-run homer capped a 16-hit night by the Bearcats and pushed them to a 15-8 signature victory over the Bobcats at Recreation Park.

With seven games to go until the postseason, W.F. West is 1.5 games in front of its biggest competition for a regular season Evergreen Conference title and the elusive No. 1 seed for the District 4 tournament.

"We had to keep our composure to be able to stay through the ball," Coleman said. "They are a great team, it is a big win for us."

When the motto of "Together, we rise" was chosen as the battle cry this spring, it wasn't picked at random from a hat. There was deep meaning behind it, with a primary goal of getting back to the state tournament after what's been a dry spell of one trip in the last three years.

Wednesday encompassed the three words in its entirety.

Every batter for the Bearcats (11-2, 7-1 EvCo) got at least one hit. Coleman poked an RBI single up the middle in the second and shouted "That was for you Rayah" from first base, picking up her teammate Rayah Middleton after she was hit by a pitch and was lifted for a pinch runner.

Taylor Tobin had far from her best stuff in the circle, but wiggled out of several jams to hold Aberdeen at bay for six of the seven innings. Even a couple errors from the defense didn't result in squandering the lead.

"We don't throw those things in there as an afterthought," W.F. West head coach Kevin Zylstra said. "We know this group is special. They have so much heart and grit and determination. This is one of my favorite teams I've ever coached.

"They win in different ways."

Since the schedule is now three league games in a week, Zylstra referred to being in "economy mode" with Tobin's pitch count. That wasn't the case versus Aberdeen.

The junior finished with 148 pitches, 108 for strikes and allowed 13 hits, five earned runs and struck out six. Still, she stranded nine runners on base and her two walks given up marked the first time in 28 innings she allowed a free pass.

Coleman and Zylstra agreed it was one of Tobin's gutsiest performances of the season.

"We had to go to Plan B which was doing what the game dictated," Zylstra said. "There is no script for calling pitches, everything is by feel. She knew she didn't have her 'A' stuff and we were able to overcome that."

After Aberdeen nearly erased the eight-run deficit with a five-spot in the sixth, W.F. West promptly responded with five of its own. Three straight singles jumpstarted the frame, the last two scoring runs, and Coleman's sacrifice fly set up Elam's deep shot to center field.

Even two straight base hits in the top of the seventh wasn't enough for the Bobcats to mount another rally. Tobin retired the final three batters to send the Bearcats into euphoria.

"We were ready to hit the ball," Coleman said of the dugout's mindset before the five-run sixth. "We wanted to keep climbing. It was good, give (Taylor) insurance."

The heart of W.F. West's order — Coleman, Elam and Brooklyn Spencer — combined for six hits and nine RBIs. Karly Rasmussen and Tanner Tobin, the Nos. 8 and 9 hitters, each recorded three hits and crossed home plate five total times.

Three runs in the bottom of the first started the offensive explosion and five more were added in the third. Tanner Tobin and Coleman had two-RBI knocks in the inning. The 15 runs is the second-most in a game this spring.

"We just brought it to a different level," Zylstra said.

W.F. West meets Centralia on Friday in the second Swamp Cup matchup and heads into the penultimate week of the regular season with games versus Tumwater and Shelton plus a road contest against Black Hills

For a league as topsy turvy as the EvCo, the Bearcats understand no opponent will be a cake walk.

"Not be too egotistical about it," Coleman said. "We still need to keep our composure."