LACEY – Jamie Phares got the ultimate revenge on the ball Friday.
Phares belted a game-winning three-run home run in the bottom of the seventh inning to send the Prairie softball team to a 5-4 win over Meadowdale of Lynnwood and into the semifinals of the Class 3A state tournament on Friday.
“When I hit it, I didn’t feel like it was going to go over because I kind of dropped my back elbow,” Phares said. “But once I hit first, I saw everyone screaming, I had a feeling it went over.”
Prairie will meet Juanita of Kirkland in the semifinals at 9 a.m. Saturday at the Regional Athletic Complex.
Phares’ day started with her getting hit by pitches three times in Prairie’s first-round game against Lake Washington of Kirkland. That led to Phares scoring two runs and driving in another in a 6-2 win.
In the semifinal game, it was Phares who hit the ball.
It started in the fifth inning when she scalded a line drive back to Meadowdale pitcher Samantha Gregoryk, who had the ball smack loudly off her pitching hand. The play resulted in a single for Phares that led to Prairie’s first run of the game, cutting Meadowdale’s lead to 4-1.
“That scared me. I felt so bad after that,” Phares said. “I thought it hit her face, so my heart dropped. I hate hitting pitchers at all because they’re so close. But after I saw her shake her hand, the fear kind of went away.”
Gregoryk stayed in the game, and the Falcons added a second run in the sixth to make it 4-2.
Tristan St. Pierre opened the seventh with an infield single, and Irene McGuire followed by hitting a ball that Gregoryk couldn’t field cleanly and threw away, putting runners on first and third with no outs.
That brought Phares to the plate.
“I was just thinking base hit,” Phares said. “That’s all I need, a base hit. I wasn’t trying to do anything big. Just trying to do the easiest play, go one bag at a time, one pitch. But that was about it. I wasn’t trying to do anything big.”
Big is what she got.
Prairie coach Ari Van Horn said: “Jamie just came up clutch. She hit that ball perfectly. Once the ball hit its peak (of flight), I knew it was gone.”
As it’s been the case all season, there were other heroes for Prairie. Josey Lesmeister pitched 3 1/3 innings of solid relief, allowing one unearned run to earn the win. St. Peter, the No. 9 hitter, got the final rally started with an infield chopper up the middle.
“No matter who we have starting an inning, I have confidence that we can score,” Van Horn said. “And the girls have confidence too. They play for each other.”
In the first game, Bailee Blechschmidt hit a two-run homer, and Maddie Williams pitched seven solid innings to beat Lake Washington.
And now the Falcons are back in the state semifinals for the second time in three years.
