The Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé Crimson Bears softball team opened play with mixed results Thursday in the ASAA/First National Bank Alaska Division I Softball State Championships at Anchorage’s Cartee Fields.
In opening pool play action to determine bracket play seeding, the Railbelt Conference runner-up Crimson Bears fell to Cook Inlet Conference Champions South Anchorage 11-3 and then defeated CIC fourth-place finisher Dimond, 15-0.
“Against South we did not play well and we didn’t really hit well,” JDHS coach Lexi Razor said. “I felt like maybe it was first game jitters of state, and then against Dimond we hit really well and played good defense and did everything we needed to do so that was a good change for us.”
South put up eight runs before Railbelt Conference second place JDHS scored in the top of the third inning.
Crimson Bears sophomore Cassandra Chenoweth earned a lead-off walk and was relieved by classmate courtesy runner Lily Hayes, who advanced on a wild pitch and a one-out ground ball poke by senior Tatum Billings for a second out that put Hayes at third base. Junior Gwen Nizich singled to left field to score Hayes.
South scored two runs in the bottom of the third inning and another in the bottom of the fourth.
JDHS scored their final two run in the top of the fifth inning.
Chenoweth again earned a leadoff walk, and Hayes relieved her on the base. Billings hit a one-out single to put runners on first and second, and senior Bryanna Eakes singled to center field scoring Hayes and Billings.
Eakes led JDHS with two RBI and Nizich had one. Billings, Nizich and sophomore Skylar Oliva had one hit each. Chenoweth earned two walks, Oliva and junior Alayna Echiverri one apiece.
Nizich pitched three innings, allowed four hits and 10 runs, and walked seven batters. Sophomore Brynn Wheeler relieved for an inning, allowed one hit and one run and walked one.
South freshman Adriana Jones led the Wolverines with three RBI, two hits and two runs scored, and senior Millicent Wurst pitched the five innings, allowed four hits and three runs, walked four and struck out 12.
“I think South had a better pitcher than we have seen before,” Razor said. “But they are still beatable. We just didn’t play our game. I think it was nerves. First game at state for some of the girls and just wanting to do really well they put pressure on themselves. Overall we did not like much about that game.”
Against Dimond there was plenty to like as JDHS stopped the Lynx in the top of the first and then piled on seven runs in the bottom half, another two runs in the second inning and six runs in the bottom of the third inning to stop the game by run rule.
“I think we just started being aggressive and hitting,” Razor said. “And then we started playing good defense. We made the plays we needed to make, we caught the ball, we stopped the ball, we did everything we needed to do but the big difference was just our hitting. We started hitting again.”
Wheeler led the Crimson Bears with three RBI, while Nizich, Eakes and sophomore Taylor Williams had two each and Echiverri, freshman Sadie Lockhart and Chenoweth one each.
Wheeler, Nizich and Oliva had two hits each, and Echiverri, Billings, Eakes, Lockhart, Chenoweth, Williams and senior Taiya Bentz one each. Williams’ lone hit was a home run in the third inning that scored Wheeler and ended the game by the run rule 15-0.
“I think we were waiting for our pitches and really did not get into our own heads,” Razor said. “We just went up there knowing what we wanted to do and were relaxed and did it. Once you get a couple girls hitting it is kind of contagious so that happened against Dimond which was good.”
Oliva pitched the three innings and allowed no hits, walked two and struck out one.
Friday action is traditional bracket play. A team plays to reach Saturday’s championship finals or until they suffer two losses.
JDHS is second from their pool play bracket and will open against the third seed from the opposite bracket, which is CIC second-place finisher East Anchorage. The winner plays RBC champion Colony later on Friday. The Knights defeated East 15-7 and CIC third-place finisher Chugiak 4-2 in pool play.
South also defeated Dimond 8-5 in pool play and will have a bye Friday, awaiting the winner of Chugiak/Dimond.
• Contact Klas Stolpe at klas.stolpe@juneauempire.com.