Lakeside Fastpitch Regional Champions
Last Saturday in a soggy Dryden, WA, the District 7 #1 seed Lakeside fastpitch team arrived fired-up and ready to play, downing tenacious District 6 #2 Chelan -- winners over D7 #3 Riverside in the loser-out first round -- by a score of 7-3, and then dominating D7 #2 Colville -- winners over D6 #3 Okanogan and D6 #1 Cascade -- by a score of 9-2 to win the Bi-District Regional Championship and earn the D6/D7 #1 seed to the state championship in Spokane this coming Friday-Saturday.
Lakeside junior Vanessa Ahrendt gave up back-to-back home runs to Chelan in the third inning for its only scoring, but those were answered with home runs by junior Savannah Rolston and sophomore Nikki Tiffany, who led the Eagles' hitting with three each. Senior centerfielder Emily Lesser added two hits as Lakeside generated 12 hits to Chelan's 8. Ahrendt shut out the Goats the other 6 innings while hurling 14 strikeouts.
Citing NFHS softball rule 6.2.2, Colville head coach Mandy Sumners, for the fourth time in as many meetings, insisted Ahrendt remove the tape splint from her injured index finger. Ahrendt responded by shutting out the Indians the final 6 innings after her teammates lit up the two Colville pitchers in the first inning, 8 runs to 2.
The Eagles added a run in the second to go up 9-2, and threatened to run-rule the Indians in the sixth as Tiffany launched the ball deep to the fence with two on and two out, but was short by just a few feet against a stiff head wind, giving the Colville centerfielder an opportunity to make the catch and retire the side.
Colville secured the #2 seed with its two wins, while Chelan grabbed the #3 seed from Cascade with its one run win in the final game