Yelm wins berth to state as rain continues to pour

Rain delays and game cancellations factored in throughout the weekend at the Class 4A West Central District softball tournament at Kent Service Club Ballfields.

So much so that the semifinals — originally scheduled for Saturday evening — trickled into Sunday.

After losing its semifinal matchup to Puyallup, 11-1, on Sunday afternoon, Yelm rallied to beat Curtis, 8-3, in a shortened game to take third in the tournament.

The Tornados (22-4) earned the final No. 1 seed out of the district into the 4A state tournament, which begins Friday at Merkel Sports Complex in Spokane.

“Going into the state tournament, we’ll (play) a No. 2 seed as opposed to a No. 1,” Yelm coach Lindsay Walton said. “That’s pretty significant. But, in the end, it’s another game, and whoever our opponent is, we’re going to be ready for them.”

Sunday’s game was shortened to four complete innings — typically, teams are required to complete at least five. Yelm had runners on first and third with two outs in the top of the fifth when a rain shower rushed the players into the dugouts.

The game was called five minutes later.

Curtis (10-14) will be a No. 2 seed. Vikings coach David Woodruff said it was somewhat disappointing to have the weather be the deciding factor.

“It is, but our philosophy is also that we’ve got to play them all and win,” he said. “You’ve got to beat good teams to go far at state.”

Woodruff said he and Walton were given the option to finish the game Monday, but opted for practice time instead.

“I decided I’d rather practice than play two innings of ball,” Woodruff said. “They’re a good team, they were up (to bat), so it made sense to get the practice time in.”

Yelm broke the game open in the second inning. Seven base hits and two fielding errors by Curtis resulted in seven runs for the Tornados.

“That kind of started a rally, and we knew we were going to win that game and get it over with,” Yelm sophomore pitcher Drea Schwaier said. “The game before (against Puyallup), we weren’t really where we were supposed to be, and it’s like we came back.”

The Vikings started to build a comeback. They blanked the Tornados in the top half of the third and fourth innings, and answered with one run apiece in the bottom half of each inning.

But it wasn’t enough to close in on Yelm before the rain started pouring.

“Our bats came alive, which needed to happen,” Walton said. “They weren’t alive in the first game. We were able to go out on a high note into the state tournament.”

The championship game between Gig Harbor (18-7) and Puyallup (23-0) was canceled before the first pitch.

“The fields were pretty gnarly,” Tides coach Kara Dressel said. “Neither one of us wanted to get anyone hurt.”

The two teams were deemed co-district champions, and take the other two No. 1 seeds out of the West Central District.

“We were a little bit worried about the safety of the kids,” Puyallup coach Tony Batinovich said. “It’s still a little mucky out there — rain maybe coming, maybe not. We just decided we’d be more than happy to share it with Gig Harbor.”

All four teams, along with Tahoma (23-1) and Rogers (18-4) advance to the state tournament.

“We’ll see what we can do next weekend, that’s the one that really counts,” Batinovich said.

T-BIRDS FALL

Tumwater’s season is over after the T-Birds couldn’t muster much offense against starter Aaron Davenport as he led Cedarcrest to a 6-1 victory in the regional round of the Class 2A state tournament.

Davenport went the distance, allowing four hits and striking out three. Levi Knott supplied an offensive boost for the Red Wolves with a triple and driving in three. Blaine Wagner went 3 for 4 scoring a pair of runs.

This story was originally published May 22, 2016 at 9:44 PM with the headline "Yelm wins berth to state as rain continues to pour."