What a difference a week makes.<\/p>\n
Doubt crept into the minds of Kentlake High fastpitch players 10 days ago after the team dropped both of its games during the South Puget Sound League tournament.<\/p>\n
Those doubts, however, were quickly and emphatically erased Friday and Saturday at Sprinker Recreation Center in Spanaway during the Class 4A West Central District tournament.<\/p>\n
The Falcons opened with a solid 3-0 victory against South Kitsap on Friday, then proceeded to thump Graham-Kapowsin in the quarterfinals later that day, 6-0, thereby punching their fifth straight state ticket and ninth in the school\u2019s 11-year history.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe think last week\u2019s games (in the SPSL tournament) were an aberration,\u201d Kentlake coach Greg Kaas said. \u201cWe came ready to play. We made plays when we had to make them.\u201d<\/p>\n
But there certainly was an edgy feeling around this bunch after their subpar showing at the league tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cA big weight was lifted (with the two wins),\u201d Kentlake senior Felecia Harris said. \u201cAfter (the league tournament), we kind of got down about, \u2018What if we don\u2019t go to state?\u2019 Of course, we came out here with confidence and a good attitude and got it done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed they did.<\/p>\n
After rolling past South Kitsap and Graham-Kapowsin behind shutouts from Caitlyn Duggan and Harris, the Falcons stumbled a bit, falling to Stadium in the semifinals, 5-1. But the Falcons bounced right back, beating Wilson, 4-1, to seal the tournament\u2019s No. 3 seed to state.<\/p>\n
Not bad for a team came out of the SPSL playoffs with the No. 5 seed.<\/p>\n
The top six teams from the 16-team district tournament advanced to state, which will be played Friday and Saturday at South End Recreation Center (SERA) in Tacoma.<\/p>\n
Kentlake opens the state tournament Friday morning at 9 against defending champion Shadle Park.<\/p>\n
In picking up three district tournament wins, the Falcons (20-4) got a little something from everybody.<\/p>\n
In their 3-0 opener against South Kitsap, Sam Beckler collected three hits scored a run. Harris delivered her finest pitching performance of the year in the 6-0 win over Graham-Kapowsin, striking out 10 and going 3 for 3 with three RBIs. Shortstop Lauren Nielsen added three hits and a triple in the win over Wilson.<\/p>\n
Kaas said qwualifying for state in a year when University of Washington-bound senior Harris had to endure pre-season shoulder surgery and, ultimately, re-invent her power-pitching style, was big.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did it differently this year,\u201d he said. \u201cWe weren\u2019t as dominant as in the past. We persevered and came through some tough times.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kentlake was the only SPSL North team to make it through the district tournament.<\/p>\n
For the second year in a row, Kentwood came close. But the Conquerors couldn\u2019t get past Puyallup for the tournament\u2019s final seed, falling 6-2. Kentwood (15-9) had to battle through the consolation bracket after losing to Wilson in its opener, 4-1.<\/p>\n
Kentwood responded with a 3-2 win over Jefferson and a 5-0 shutout of Graham-Kapowsin.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pretty disappointing,\u201d Kentwood coach Jason Wisor said. \u201cThe players were in it the whole time. It just didn\u2019t go our way.\u201d<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t go quite as planned for Tahoma (11-15) or Kentridge (12-11), either.<\/p>\n
Kentridge was eliminated in two games, losing to eventual champion Central Kitsap, 2-0, in its opener and 3-2 to Bellarmine Prep in a consolation round game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What a difference a week makes.<\/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-9447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9447"}],"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=9447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9447\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9447"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=9447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}