First came the jam, and then came the throw.<\/p>\n
Behind a pitching gem by Nikole Weber and the defensive play of the year by center fielder Erin Crowley, Kentlake hung on to beat Puyallup 3-1 for the South Puget Sound League title on Friday evening at Service Club Ballfields in Kent.<\/p>\n
Kentlake (21-1) was clinging to a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the sixth inning, when Puyallup (18-4) loaded the bases with no outs. Puyallup\u2019s Kaele Ingram followed with a shot to mid-center field, a fly ball that appeared to be a certain sacrifice fly if not more.<\/p>\n
Instead, the lanky left-handed Crowley positioned herself perfectly behind the long fly ball, made the catch for the first out, and then delivered a missile to catcher Brittany Styger. Styger made the grab, and then lunged slightly to her left to tag out Puyallup\u2019s Amber Tomlinson.<\/p>\n
The play doused a potentially big Puyallup rally and essentially iced the game \u2013 and the league title \u2013 for the Falcons.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people don\u2019t like to run on me,\u201d admitted Crowley, who was just as effective with the bat, going 3-for-4 with a triple and a run scored. \u201cGetting behind it \u2026 we practice that every single day. (Throwing her out) is an amazing feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n
After seeing the ball leave the bat, Weber anticipated the outcome at the plate.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Erin) always has every single catch, every single throw perfectly,\u201d said Weber. \u201cThere wasn\u2019t a doubt in my mind that she was going to catch it, but that throw was just the cherry on top.\u201d<\/p>\n
Weber, a senior right-hander, went the distance in the circle, striking out a pair and walking three. In addition, Weber was backed by rock-solid defense around the diamond, particularly from shortstop Erika Smyth.<\/p>\n
With the win, Kentlake takes the SPSL\u2019s top seed to the West Central District tournament, which is slated for May 21-22 at Sprinker Recreation Center in Spanaway. The top seven teams from the 16-team field advanced to the state tournament, which will be held the following weekend at South End Recreation Area (SERA) in Tacoma.<\/p>\n
Kentridge (17-7) and Kentwood (10-12) also will be advancing to the district tournament. The Conquerors will be taking the eighth seed to the district tournament while the Chargers will advance as the sixth seed.<\/p>\n
The No. 1 seed, however, belongs to the Falcons, which is a pretty nice feeling Weber noted, especially after sharing the regular-season title with Tahoma.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s nice to win the title on our own instead of being co-champions,\u201d Weber said. \u201cWe are SPSL champions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed. And with that came Kentlake\u2019s 16th win in a row.<\/p>\n
The Falcons got off to a quick start, plating a pair of first-inning runs, one on an RBI single from Kellie Nielsen, and the other on a Puyallup error. Puyallup cut the deficit to 2-1 in the third, getting to Weber for a pair of hits, but little else in the inning.<\/p>\n
Crowley gave Kentlake the insurance it needed in the fourth, lashing a one-hop shot off the left-center wall. The speedy Crowley pulled into third base, noticed the Puyallup outfielder bobbling the ball, and bolted for home to score the Falcons final run.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s a difference maker,\u201d said Kentlake coach Greg Kaas of Crowley.<\/p>\n
Of course, Crowley would not have had the opportunity to make the throw or provide the big hit against Puyallup had the Falcons not rallied to beat Rogers 8-7 in the semifinal game. Trailing the Rams 7-6 in the bottom of the seventh inning, Kentlake\u2019s Jessie Richardson led off the inning with a hard, one-hop smash off the chest of Rogers\u2019 ace Bobbi-Jo Schaapveld. After gathering herself, Schaapveld picked up the ball, and then sent it down the right-field line, allowing Richardson to move to second base. Kentlake freshman Libby Riehl followed with an RBI single to left-center, tying the game 7-7. Riehl moved to second base on the throw home. Moments later, Nielsen drove home pinch runner Ashlee Buch with the game-winning single.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is just a really resilient group,\u201d Kaas said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
First came the jam, and then came the throw.
\nBehind a pitching gem by Nikole Weber and the defensive play of the year by center fielder Erin Crowley, Kentlake hung on to beat Puyallup 3-1 for the South Puget Sound League title on Friday evening at Service Club Ballfields in Kent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-2033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2033"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2033\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2033"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=2033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}