In a game that featured 33 combined runs, 36 combined hits, an overturned final play at the plate and a walk-off walk, the Olympia softball team lost to Emerald Ridge 17-16 in Puyallup Monday afternoon despite compiling 22 hits. The Bears nearly pulled off a five-run comeback but couldn’t lock down the final out in the seventh.
“There is no quit in these girls. They are always trying to make needed adjustments from game to game, as well as one plate appearance to the next,” Olympia head coach Drew Wellner said. “The team has been doing a great job of staying motivated through the ups and downs and are coming together as a team.”
Ups and downs were aplenty for both teams Monday. Emerald Ridge jumped on Olympia starting pitcher Abby Crawford in the first inning, scoring four runs in the opening frame, including three with two outs.
Aliyah Eberle put the Bears on the board with an RBI single in the top of the second, but Olympia left the bases loaded. Crawford brought two runners home in the fourth on a blitzed ground ball past the third baseman, and the throw from left field was cut off before a play at the plate could be made on the second run.
Crawford walked two batters in the bottom of the fourth and was replaced by Sydnee Chandler-Trent. On the third pitch of her first at bat, she surrendered a three-run home run by Jayda Guadron to put the Jaguars up 7-3. Emerald Ridge loaded the bases again in the fourth and added one more run to its lead.
Olympia’s offense caught fire in the second half of the contest. After the first two Bears batters snagged a hit to start the fifth, Ashlynn Carey brought them both home on a double to center field. Carey scored with a Katelyn Pearson grounder that forced an error.
Tyler Trujillo stepped up and cranked a first-pitch home run, immediately waving goodbye at the ball as her first homer of the season. sailed over the left field fence to tie the game at 8-8. Olympia took its first lead as Sydney Potvin doubled to the gap in deep right field, and the throw to the plate was off, allowing Mariah Martin to score the go-ahead run.
Chandler-Trent shut down the Jaguars offense in the bottom of the fifth, leaving the bases loaded and keeping the Bears in front. Eberle came up clutch again in the top of the sixth, hitting a ball right at the right fielder, who couldn’t come up with the catch as two more runs scored.
Up 11-8 entering the bottom of the sixth, Olympia struggled to put away Jaguars batters. The first three Emerald Ridge hitters reached base, with the leadoff runner coming around to score on a wild pitch.
Izzy Falling replaced Chandler-Trent in the circle in the middle of an at-bat and managed to throw two strikes to finish off the strikeout, but the next five Jaguars reached base. After three hits, three walks and a sacrifice, Emerald Ridge was back in front 16-11 with an eight-run sixth.
Suddenly down five runs with only three outs left, the Olympia Bears never backed down. Crawford, Potvin and Sam Graham each singled to start the seventh, and after Chandler-Trent flew out, Carey brought Crawford home on a sacrifice groundout.
Down to their final out, Olympia needed three pitches to tie the game. Pearson hit a line drive on the first pitch she saw to left field, and the left fielder, blinded by the sun, couldn’t backpedal quickly enough as the ball dropped behind her, allowing two runs to score.
Trujillo, on the second pitch of her at-bat, hit the ball to the opposite side, sending a line drive to right-center field. The ball dropped in front of right fielder Marley Tennison, but she ran past it. As Tennison collected the ball, Pearson scored from second to make it a 16-15 game. Tennison threw to third base to attempt to tag Trujillo out, but the ball got away. Trujillo got up and sprinted toward home for the tying run, and the throw to catcher Guadron was originally called successful by the home-plate umpire. Emerald Ridge celebrated as if it had won the game and started to form its handshake line.
Following a conference by the two umpires, the home-plate umpire turned toward the players and ruled that Trujillo was actually safe, tying the game at 16-16 and extending the game to the bottom of the seventh.
After a wild sequence to end the top of the seventh, the Bears, with Falling in the circle, never recorded an out in the bottom half of the frame. Two walks and a single loaded the bases, and Guadron walked with the bases loaded to end the game.
Olympia was led offensively by Eberle, who went 4 of 6 with three runs batted in and two doubles, and Trujillo’s three hits and three RBIs, including a home run and a triple. Crawford added three hits and two RBIs, while Graham recorded three hits.
Olympia (3-7, 3-4 South Puget Sound League) will look to quickly regroup as Curtis (3-6, 1-6 South Puget Sound League) comes to Stevens Field Tuesday afternoon.
