Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
The Colfax girls fastpitch softball team poses for a photo with its fourth-place state trophy.
YAKIMA - The Bulldog girls fastpitch softball placed fourth in the state 2B tournament Saturday, May 28.
Coach Tracy Imler led the varsity girls to a strong finish and historical moment for Colfax.
"You always hope you can go and win the entire thing. Our goal for the state tournament was to place," he said. "We were not setting our sights too high."
The Bulldogs went into the tournament seeded fifth.
En route to the fourth-place trophy, they eliminated No. 12 Goldendale, 14-2, then topped 14-8 to reach the semifinals.
"There were a 2-3 teams that were really good. I would say we were pretty happy," he said.
One of those teams, No. 1-ranked Adna, handed Colfax its first loss at state, 11-1.
The loss sent the Bulldogs into consolation bracket, where they eliminated Toledo, 12-5, to reach the game for third-place.
In that final game, the local girls lost to Forks, 13-8.
"The girls were pretty disappointed when we lost that third-fourth game," the coach said. "But they didn't know that Colfax has never placed in state before. They were really proud to be the first team to place at state."
With two seniors graduating, Imler said filling those spots will be difficult.
But, he recognizes that his girls showed great team effort.
"I think there are a lot of younger girls that stepped into some new roles on the team this year. They played beyond my expectations and I think the team did, too.
"They played above my high expectations that I had for them. They work well together and they have fun on and off the field.
"All the girls that played at state contributed in their own way. There wasn't one person that outshined anyone else."
Justice Brown and Jorja Koerner are the two graduating seniors.
"They both played great," Imler said. "We couldn't have asked for anything more from them."
In the trophy game, the local girls fell behind early and couldn't catch Forks.
Forks won, 13-8.
Forks scored a single by Kyra Neel, a double by Keira Johnson, and a triple by Grace Gooding in the first inning. Forks had one error in the first and second innings and a single by Neel in the second inning.
The Bulldogs had 12 hits in the game, more than the winning Spartans with 11.
Harper Booth, Koerner and Brown each collected multiple hits for Colfax.
Earlier on Saturday, the Bulldogs faced Toledo and won, 12-5.
In the first inning, KeiLena Nelson tripled and Colfax scored three runs.
Harley Hennigar hit a long ball in the sixth inning for a homerun.
Early the same morning, the local girls faced top-ranked Adna in the semifinals.
Adna's pitching and batting were hot, giving the pirates an 11-1 win.
Adna took the first inning with a homerun and scored five runs in the second inning.
Adna had 12 hits in the game.
On Friday, May 27, the first day of state, the Bulldogs eliminated Goldendale, 14-2; then topped Lake Roosevelt, 14-8.
Justice Brown allowed 11 hits and 8 runs over seven innings pitching against the Lake Roosevelt Raiders. She struck out 5.
Harper Booth had a homerun in the sixth inning for Colfax in that game.
In the state-opener, Koerner went 5 innings on the mound while the Bulldogs tallied 10 hits in the game.
Brown, Nelson and Delaney Imler all had multiple hits.
Brown led Bulldogs with three hits in three at bats.
"The season went pretty well," Coach Imler said. "Fourth in state is a good finish for us. We won a lot of games."
Olivia Harnack is a Journalist at the Whitman County Gazette. Olivia is enrolled at University of Idaho and is majoring in digital film studies. She serves in the United States Army National Guard and is proud to serve Whitman County.
Reader Comments(0)