The Olympia softball team staved off a comeback by South Kitsap after building a comfortable lead and held on to win 7-5 Tuesday at Stevens Field.
Catcher Aliyah Eberle shined in the leadoff slot in the Bears lineup, batting 3 for 3 with a run batted in, two runs scored, a double and a walk.
South Kitsap scored a run in the first and another in the second off of Olympia starting pitcher Sydnee Chandler-Trent, but the Bears ripped the momentum back in the third with an RBI single by Eberle and a game-tying double from Abby Crawford.
A dropped third strike turned into Nia Huckaby scoring the go-ahead run after she singled to lead off the fourth inning. Crawford scored on a wild pitch in the fifth, and Huckaby came in clutch again with a two-run, two-out single to increase Oly’s lead to 6-2.
Both teams traded a run in the sixth, with Sydney Potvin driving in a run for the Bears. The Wolves gave Olympia a scare in the seventh. After Chandler-Trent secured the first two outs of the inning on just three pitches, the next batter doubled, and then two singles scored two runs. All of a sudden, South Kitsap had the tying run at the plate, but Chandler-Trent got the final batter to fly out to end the game.
Chandler-Trent went the distance for Olympia, allowing five runs on seven hits and two walks while striking out three.
Huckaby and Crawford each contributed two hits, with Crawford’s two hits for extra bases.
Olympia (3-5, 3-3 South Puget Sound League) gets two tough tests to finish the week, first at Sumner (5-1, 3-1 South Puget Sound League) in a rematch of a district first round game from last season, and then a road trip to Tumwater (3-3, 1-2 EvCo) Friday.
