CENTRALIA — The La Center Wildcats fought off the Kalama Chinooks to clinch a birth to the 1A state tournament on Saturday.
Behind a complete game from sophomore pitcher Abby England, the Wildcats won their loser-out, winner-goes-to-state matchup, 4-0, in the District 4 1A tournament at Fort Borst Park.
England and the Wildcats breezed through the Chinooks in the middle innings, but their victory didn’t come without drama.
Kalama had the bases loaded in the first inning and in the seventh as the Wildcats were trying to close out the game.
“A little nervous,” England said. “You just have to think, there’s defense behind you. They know what they’re doing.”
“This is the first time we’ve really been pressured by Kalama this hard. They’re a very good team,” said Wildcats coach Randy Martinez.
The Wildcats showed resilience, bouncing back from an earlier loss in the tournament to Montesano, to qualify for state.
The Chinooks kept the Wildcats on their toes and also didn’t allow them to blow the game open as they had in all three meetings in league play.
“We made defensive plays, they made defensive plays,” Martinez said.
Both teams played a clean game defensively and the Wildcats sealed the win with a tough defensive play of their own.
Alicen Smith, the La Center center fielder who also went 2 for 3, made a tough play to get the final out on a ball that was smashed into the gap in right-center field.
“That last catch by Alicen, that’s a shot that girl hit,” Martinez said. “That would have scored three runs, but she made the play.”
Now that the business of actually qualifying for state out of the way, the Wildcats also have a little bit of revenge on the mind.
“We’d love to play Montesano again,” England said.
“Their pitcher is a very good pitcher and we weren’t disciplined at the plate, so we had a tough time with it,” Martinez said. “I’m sure when we face them again we will correct that.”
La Center completed its day by finishing third in the tournament, defeating Elma 13-3 in five innings.
LA CENTER 4, KALAMA 0
Kalama 000 000 0—0 3 1
La Center 002 110 0—4 6 2
Kalama
Pitching — Morgan VanRiper 6 IP, loss, BB, 6 H.
La Center
Pitching — Abby England 7 IP, win, 7K, 5 BB, 3H. Highlights — Alicen Smith 2-3, RBI, R; Megan Muffett 1-2 2B; Paige Stinson 1-3 2B.
LA CENTER 13, ELMA 3
Third-place game
Elma 100 11– 3 2 1
La Center 220 72 — 13 7 0
La Center
Pitching — Abby England 5 IP, win, 8K; Highlights — Alicen Smith 1-3 3RBI; Meghan Muffett 2-3 2RBI; Jessi Weaver 1-3 2RBI; Kayla Aguirre 1-3; Amanda Moudy 1-1; Lilly Casey 1-1.
