RIDGEFIELD — With senior Abby Runyon in the circle, promising young Hockinson is the softball team nobody wants to play.
Ridgefield is the team everyone hates to face.
The two-time co-league champion Spudders fended off Hockinson 6-2 Monday at the Ridgefield Outdoor Recreation Complex.
Emma Jenkins and Kekai Schultz hit home runs and Kaia Oliver struck out seven in the Spudders’ 2A Greater St. Helens League victory.
Jenkins’ first-inning two-run blast to dead center was the first earned runs Runyon allowed in the past four games.
“I knew she didn’t want to walk me, so I was expecting something in the strike zone,” Jenkins said. “I decided to keep my head on it and hit the ball as hard as I could.”
Jenkins knows talented pitching when she sees it. She catches for Oliver, a Syracuse commit, and sees Olivia Grey, a Portland State commit, twice a year. Runyon, a Saint Martin’s commit, has pushed her name into that conversation. She struck out 10 and allowed just six hits Monday.
“She masks all her pitches really well,” Jenkins said of her foe. “Throwing the changeup, the fastball and the rise, her form is the same every time.”
Hockinson has benefited in a big way. The Hawks (9-2, 3-1) were winners of six straight entering Monday. With seven ninth-graders on the varsity roster, it’s an encouraging sign.
“Games like this keeps them going in the right direction,” Hockinson coach Mike Steuben said. “They know they’re capable of beating anybody, and they’re competitors.”
The Hawks tallied six hits off Oliver. Ellie Skinner doubled and Isabella Aspaas tripled before each scored on suicide squeezes in the fourth and fifth innings, respectively.
“We have Grey and Oliver in our league so at the end of the day, we have to work on driving the ball,” Steuben said. “You can see today we hit the ball well. This was a great game to build off of.”
Ridgefield (9-3, 4-1) just had a little more firepower on a drizzly Monday. Jenkins followed up her first-inning single with an RBI ground-rule double in the third. Two runs scored on Hockinson errors, and Kekai Schultz launched a line-drive home run to left field in the sixth inning.
“I was struggling the first two at-bats, so I knew I just had to focus and keep my head on the ball,” Schultz said. “I hit it well.”
The Spudders continue their six-game homestand against Washougal on Wednesday. The homestand ends with Woodland on May 3, a game that will decide whether Ridgefield can take a share of the league crown for the third straight year. Hockinson travels to league-leading Woodland on Wednesday.
