Jacob Farmer / jfarmer@yelmonline.com
Make that eight in a row for the Mountaineers.
After a walk-off win against Toledo on Monday, April 14, the Rainier softball team kept its streak alive with a 12-2 run-rule victory over the Toutle Lake Fighting Ducks, which entered the contest with a 6-2 record.
Through three innings, neither team seemed able to get anything going on offense. That changed in the fourth, when Rainier’s Elaina Henry and Ryleigh Cruse singled on successive at-bats. Cleanup hitter Keira Anderson followed with a line drive that brought Henry across home plate.
From that point, the rout was on. Keira Anderson wasn’t finished.
Up 4-0 in the fifth, Anderson smashed a three-run homer to center field. She returned for an encore in the sixth, this time ending the game with a two-run shot over the left field wall.
After the game, Anderson said she wasn’t thinking about home runs — she just wanted to make solid contact.
“Just wanted to get on base, really,” Anderson said.
“There's nobody that deserves that more,” Rainier head coach Katie Qualls said of Anderson’s home run performance. “It was awesome.”
The senior catcher has been starting for the Mountaineers since she was in eighth grade.
“It means so much to me,” Anderson said of her final season at Rainier. “And I'm so glad to be out here with these girls, and I love them all.”
When asked about her goals for the rest of the season, Anderson said she just wants to have fun in every game she plays, while encouraging her teammates as much as she can.
Five Rainier batters recorded multiple hits against Toutle Lake; the Mountaineers totaled 14 as a team. Anderson went 4-for-4, notching six RBIs to go with her two home runs. Ryleigh Cruse finished 3-for-4 with four RBIs.
“Took us a little while to get the bats going,” Qualls said after the game, adding that her hitters were eventually able to adjust to Audrey Kilponen’s pitching. “We have a lot of antsy kids on the team, and I think patience was just something they needed to apply.”
“I think we just had to settle in, see a few pitches,” Anderson said. “It takes us a minute to, like, get warmed up usually.”
Qualls said she was happy with the production from the bottom of the batting order. Lucy Wolfe, enjoying perhaps her best day at the plate, went 2-for-3, scoring one run.
“I think it just comes with experience, right?” Qualls said. “And the more they get in, the more frustrated they get, and they're always wanting to work on more batting in practice… and we do. And, you know, they've never played before. So, to see them be patient up there, like Victoria (Garcia), that was excellent. And Lucy (Wolfe), like, that's a line drive, right? Like, we couldn't be happier. They're putting in the work and it’s paying off.”
Elaina Henry picked up her second straight start for the winning Mountaineers, striking out six batters while allowing just two runs, neither of them earned.
“She's just a straight fastpitch player,” Qualls said of Henry’s versatility at pitcher and shortstop.
“She's quick, she doesn't really throw that many pitches,” Qualls added. “It's great to watch and I think that's (also) just a little testament to Ryleigh (Cruse) playing third, Ryleigh hitting the ball. Teamwork."
The Mountaineers continued their winning streak with an 18-4 run-rule victory against Morton-White Pass on Monday, April 21, at Rainier Elementary School. Ryleigh Cruse earned the win for the Mountaineers, striking out six batters in five innings. Layla Hill batted a perfect 4-for-4, driving in four runs and scoring two of her own. Keira Anderson added her third home run in just two games with a solo shot in the second inning. Anderson batted in five runs on four hits.
Rainier (8-2, 3-0 Central 2B League) visits first-place Adna (8-3, 5-0 Central 2B League) on Thursday, April 24, at 4 p.m. They return home to face Onalaska on Saturday, April 26, at noon.
