Jacob Dimond / jake@yelmonline.com
Yelm High School’s softball team is looking to get back on track and regain its pre-spring break swagger, following a 1-2 skid that included losses to 4A South Puget Sound League opponents Emerald Ridge and Puyallup.
Leading up to spring break, the Tornados posted 64 runs across two games — but the hot streak came to a conclusion after break on Tuesday, April 8, in an 11-0 home loss to the SPSL North’s Emerald Ridge.
“We had a couple rough games,” said Yelm’s head coach Lindsay Walton. “We did not produce offensively like we normally do. It was unfortunate. We got beat 11-0 in five innings, and I was bummed. They’re a good team, but we face good teams and have given them good games. We were unable to do that against Emerald Ridge. I feel like if we were to face them again, it would be a different game.
“That was our first game back from spring break, so maybe a little time off played into that,” she added.
Following the loss, Yelm looked to correct mistakes the next day on Wednesday, April 9, in a matchup against the SPSL North’s Puyallup. Despite nearly 10-run ruling the Vikings, Puyallup displayed its grit and defeated Yelm 19-16 — drawing 12 walks in the process, according to Walton.
“We should’ve won that game,” she said. “Losing that game was almost worse than losing 11-0 against Emerald Ridge. We, at one point, almost 10-runned them, and then we ended up going into extra innings and had to go to an international tiebreaker in the ninth. You look at that box score, and you’ll see that Yelm had 22 hits and Puyallup had 13. We both had critical errors in that game, but our errors were more costly.”
The Tornados were able to conclude their busy week with a victory over former South Sound Conference foe, Timberline, as Yelm defeated its old SSC rival 8-4 on Friday, April 11, behind the strong pitching from senior Austin Hitchner — who struck out 16 batters, according to Walton.
Sophomore Kamille Kautz’s bat also caught fire in the rivalry matchup with Timberline, as she went 3-for-4 including a triple.
“We got a really great win out of this matchup. We faced some good pitching, and had a great start against a great pitcher,” Walton said. “We’re trying to come back to where we were prior to spring break with that momentum going into those games over the break. We want to find that again. We’re getting to the point where this postseason is going to be upon us in a couple of weeks. We need to get on a roll and be comfortable with each other, be upbeat, and keep the positivity.”
The Tornados played SPSL North’s Rogers on Tuesday, April 15, and South Kitsap on Wednesday, April 16; however, the Nisqually Valley News went to publication prior to results of the contest being readily available.
Up next for Yelm, the Tornados will look to reignite another former SSC rivalry as the Peninsula Seahawks come to town for a 3:30 p.m. matchup on Friday, April 18, at Yelm High School. Following the matchup against former conference rivals, YHS will honor the upcoming graduates on its roster in a senior night celebration. Then, at 4 p.m. on Monday, April 21, the Tornados will host the Graham-Kapowsin Eagles in an SPSL South contest.
“A lot of our success depends on how we come out in that first inning offensively, and whether or not we can be successful and produce runs to get momentum going,” Walton said. “We were able to do that against Timberline, and we won. You look at the Puyallup game, and offensively we were supporting our pitcher, but we’ve also got to be able to throw strikes. We want to cut back on walks and score early because it really plays into the final outcome of if we’re successful in getting that win or not.”
