Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Wildcats win two games 19-0 and 11-0
COLTON — The day after Colton swept the four-team league softball playoffs to finish 11-0, Wildcats Coach Brad Nilson woke up past 3 a.m.
“All dressed up and nowhere to go,” he said he was thinking.
His team often has T-shirts made after state tournaments, and this year with no state event, Nilson laid there and thought that might be something good for the T-shirt.
Playing at Walla Walla’s Pioneer Park on May 4, No. 1 seed the Colton Wildcats first met No. 4 Garfield-Palouse and won 19-0.
In the third inning with the bases loaded, Maggie Meyer hit a grand slam. Then Josie Schultheis followed with a solo home run.
“We hit the ball well. We were hitting the ball where they weren’t,” said Nilson.
The game ended in five innings.
In the championship against Liberty Christian, Colton jumped to an early lead and they kept it to win 11-0.
Meyer hit another home run.
“We hit all the way through the order,” Nilson said. “There was nobody not doing their job. We’re peaking right now.”
Schultheis pitched both complete games.
The day ended a season where the Wildcats broke in an outfield with two freshmen and a senior who had not started before.
“It’s been a weird year. It’s so disappointing,” Nilson said. “We had a pretty good chance of moving on, and we can’t move on. Then we look across the border and Idaho is playing all their state championships.”
In the end, his team graduates three seniors, Schultheis, Riley Vining and Addie Purnell.
“I couldn’t be prouder of the girls. The work ethic and the hard work,” Nilson said. “You’re only as good as your seniors and our senior leadership was pretty good this year.”
Now all that’s left to do is call the screen printer.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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