RIDGEFIELD — Not to worry, Jadyn Schofield thought. You could see it in her smile.
This was a game the Columbia River softball team was going to win … even when down to the Chieftains’ final three outs and trailing by one with the 2A Greater St. Helens League title at stake against Ridgefield.
“My heart was beating so fast,” the Chieftains’ senior third baseman said. “I had so much confidence in my team.
“There was no doubt.”
She was right, because River continued to do what’s been its bread and butter all season: winning by small-ball and base running.
And the Chieftains did it to perfection, taking advantage of six walks, and scoring three runs off passed balls, including two in the seventh inning for the come-from-behind victory over the Spudders in the teams’ 2A GSHL finale.
At 11-1 in league, River and Ridgefield are co-league champions. To determine district seeding, the teams likely will play a tiebreaker game Monday for Nos. 1 and 2 seeds to next week’s 2A district tournament in Longview.
Just like the late-game drama in the teams’ first go-around April 26, it happened again Friday.
Ridgefield pitcher Kaia Oliver held River to two hits — Cassie Baldino’s solo home run in the fourth and Gabbi Collins’ single the next inning — but who needs hits to score runs?
Not the Chieftains.
That’s where the walks came into play. None was bigger than Hanna Dyer’s lead-off walk in the seventh — her second in the game — whose patience at the plate paid off after her 10-pitch at-bat.
A Ridgefield error moved her to second, then a fielder’s choice got her to third.
She and Collins, who reached on the error, scored on back-to-back passed balls to put River up for good.
There’s that small-ball again.
“We took advantage of every little thing we could,” said Dyer, who also scored on a fielder’s choice as part of a two-run fifth for River (14-4).
Oliver struck out 12, but did issue all six walks. She also highlighted the Spudders’ offense, going 2-for-3 — a solo home run in the second, and a two-run single in the fifth. That inning, Ridgefield sent eight batters to the plate, and took a 4-3 lead after five innings off Oliver’s RBI hit. That was the third lead change of the game, but River’s was the fourth and final in the seventh. Reliever Emma Klundt pitched a 1-2-3 home seventh.
River coach Mindy Williams-Cleeland praised her team’s patience, aggressiveness and putting the pressure on the opponent, something that wasn’t visible in the teams’ loss to the Spudders on April 26. Ridgefield committed six errors, a season-high.
“We were able to take that back today, by at least putting the ball in play and making (Ridgefield) make the defensive plays,” Williams-Cleeland said.
Dyer, a sophomore, said the come-from-behind victory was a team confidence booster, and it helped, too, that team unity was at its highest all season Friday, she said.
Perfect timing with the playoffs up next.
“We’re going to have more trust and faith in each other going into our playoff games,” she said.
