State softball trophy again eludes Bulldogs at Yakima

The quest for a Colfax state softball trophy again fell short Saturday when the Bulldogs’ bid ended at 2-2 in the 2B playoffs at Yakima Gateway park. The Bulldogs booked a split the first day to fall into the grueling consolation rounds and then finished with a split the second day.

“Overall its was a successful season, but bagging a state trophy was one of our goals this year,” Coach Terry Eng said. He added the Bulldogs did meet other goals during the season, including a top finish in the league competition.

Colfax started the Yakima show with a 16-3 win over LaConner, but they were derailed by DeSales, the SE District champs, 9-5 in the second game.

Under the WIAA four-trophy format, teams that fail to book wins in their first two games face a long grind before they can get within range of one of the trophies.

After the quarter-final loss Colfax came back to defeat Warden 4-3 in their first consolation game, but they were stopped by Toutle Lake 9-1 in the next elimination game.

The fate of the Bulldogs was booked in the fourth inning when the Ducks scored six runs on two Colfax errors and five of their eight hats.

That outbreak gave the Ducks a 9-1 lead and that stood up for the balance.

Coach Eng noted the Bulldogs out-hit Toutle in the last game, but the Ducks rolled up the scores because they bunched hits. Colfax defense also finished with five errors in the final game.

In the first Saturday game Colfax and the Warden Cougars locked up in a 1-1 tie into the fifth when Colfax scored three runs to take the lead.

Cori Goodwin, Lauren Moore, Sammi Pearson, Rachel Robinston and Amy Hickman linked hits in the outbreak.

Warden bounced back to score two runs in the sixth to come within a run, but they couldn’t close it off.

Senior Amy Hickman allowed the Cougars just two hits, walked just two and struck out six.

DeSales took 9-5 win over Colfax in the second round Friday to throw Colfax off the state title trail. The same Irish team swept Colfax in a non-league game earlier in the season.

Irish lefty Ashlyn Lyons allowed Colfax five hits, walked 2 and struck out five in the Friday quarter-final game.

Hickman fanned 10 Irish batters, walked six and allowed seven hits.

Pe Ell, one of the power teams from the southwest part of the state, took the championship with a 6-2 win over the Bi County’s Northwest Christian, district seven champions from last week. That win came after Pe Ell stoped DeSales 6-3 in the semi-final round.

NWC advanced to the title game with a 6-3 edge over Adna, the defending champions.

Eng credited the NWC Dragons with breaking up the SE District 4 domination in the state finals.

Colfax will graduate six seniors off the team and those departures will leave a lot of holes up the middle. Hickman will depart after anchoring the Bulldog pitching for two years and packing a solid threat to the plate. Also departing will be Kaysha Lyman, Lauren Moore, Abby Muir, Sammi Pearson, and Erin Cox.

Eng notes the grad list will call for a major rebuild in the middle of the Colfax defense.