In her debut, Davis powers W.F. West to 14-7 Evco softball win over Tumwater
Kindra Davis’ introduction to 2A Evergreen Conference softball was a memorable one.
W.F. West’s sophomore catcher, playing in her first varsity league game, led off the top of the fifth — with her team trailing Tumwater, 5-4 — and sent the first pitch soaring over the right field fence to tie the contest.
Two innings later, she crushed a two-run homer over the center field fence as a late-inning barrage by the Bearcats gave them a 14-7 win Thursday evening on opening day in the EvCo.
“She might have been nervous,” Bearcats coach Mike Keen said with a smile afterward. “It’s hard to read her. She’s always so pumped up about everything. I can’t tell if it’s nerves or just enthusiasm.”
Davis confirmed that she was nervous when the game started.
“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t,” she said. “After a few innings, after my first at-bat, I calmed down.”
That first at-bat was a strikeout, one of seven that Tumwater senior Jocelyn Glasgo recorded.
Davis singled in the third, but nothing foretold her power surge.
“I’m just looking for base hits to help my team,” she said. “If one happens to go over the fence, that’s awesome.”
Lexi Strasser cracked a pair of extra-base hits for the Bearcats — wearing their “Chehalis” uniforms — doubling in two runs in the third before following Davis’ fifth-inning shot with a two-run homer three batters later. Roni Braun went 3 for 3, with a walk and a hit-by-pitch.
Bearcats pitcher Ashley Vadala settled in late, retiring eight batters in order at one point before Tumwater added two runs in the seventh on a single by Kelsey Killough.
Tumwater took a 3-1 lead in the second, only to see W.F. West go up 4-3 in the third before the T-Birds grabbed the lead back in the fourth in an error-aided rally fueled by Killough and Kaylee Clarke singles.
Then, with the bombs by Davis and Strasser leading the way, W.F. West took control and kept it.
“You could tell it was an early-season game,” Keen said. “There were a lot of errors (three by Tumwater, four by W.F. West). We went through this last year, too. We got rained on and rained on, then you go outside for games without a lot of practice.”
This story was originally published March 31, 2016 at 9:00 PM with the headline "In her debut, Davis powers W.F. West to 14-7 Evco softball win over Tumwater."