The Yelm Tornados fastpitch team celebrated its senior night on May 4 with a dominant 16-6 victory over North Thurston. The high scoring contest was played in the rain at Yelm High School.
Two seniors were celebrated following the team’s victory. Yelm’s head coach Lindsay Walton introduced both of the seniors and spoke about the players moving on from the program.
Walton spoke first about Morgan Schackel. She’ll head to the University of Oregon following her graduation to study criminology and law.
“Morgan has played second base, short and outfield. Unfortunately, she had an injury that took her out completely last year,” Walton said. “She’s been kind of injured here and there, but thankfully she was able to compete today.”
Schackel was joined by her mom, dad, boyfriend and best friend.
Walton then spoke about senior Natalia Andrade. She’ll head to South Puget Sound Community College to study nursing following her Yelm High School graduation.
“Natalia has been with us and one thing I love about her is she has a great attitude and a great smile. She works super hard,” Walton said. “She plays third base and outfield.”
Andrade was joined by her mother, brother, grandmother and boyfriend.
Madisyn Erickson started the game on the mound for the Tornados. She squared off against North Thurston’s Avery Anderson.
The Rams were on the board first in the top of the second inning as they led 4-0. Their lead did not last long as the Tornados collected six runs in the bottom of the second frame to take a 6-4 lead.
North Thurston and Yelm each added one run in the third inning to make it a 7-5 score in favor of Yelm.
After the Rams scored one more run in the top of the fourth inning to make it a 7-6 game, the Tornado offense erupted. Caylee Roberts led the high scoring inning with a massive two-run home run. Two additional runs crossed the plate in the bottom of the fourth and Yelm led 12-6.
The Tornados scored three more runs in the bottom of the fifth to lead 15-6, before scoring the final run of the game in the bottom of the sixth inning.
Yelm collected 12 total hits on the day, with Roberts, Erickson, Layah Hicks and Mallory Hoke each having multiple hits during the contest.
Hicks led the team going 3-for-4 at the plate, while her teammate Roberts collected a home run and a double.
Walton said Erickson has started to heat up at the plate as of late, tapping into her power. In addition to Erickson building momentum at the plate, she said Miranda Hunt has been consistent as well.
The coach is also pleased with how the freshman Hoke has performed for the team.
“I’ll be excited to see how Mallory does in the next few games,” Walton said. “She likes to perfect her craft. If she messes up, she either knows what she’s doing wrong or she’ll go home and practice it that night.”
Walton said the team started slowly by watching too many strikes and taking at-bats with a conservative approach.
“After we went through the lineup once watching too many strikes, I told them we had to attack. I think we started doing that,” Walton said. “The girls started to play with energy. The dugout started doing chants from when the girls were playing in 12U, and we always tend to play better when we’re relaxed.”
Walton said the team currently sits in fourth place in South Sound Conference standings, though they could finish in third place if they “take care of business.” The team had three games remaining on their schedule on May 4.
“We’re looking to win all three. We have to. We have to do what we can to control where we’ll end up going into district play,” Walton said. “Unless something weird or crazy happens, we should qualify for districts no problem. But we’ll continue to take it one game at a time.”
The team won against Central Kitsap on May 8 and faces River Ridge on May 10 and North Thurston on May 12. All of the remaining games are on the road.
