Lady Cruisers Finish Regular Season, Prepare For District Playoffs

After dealing with numerous rain-outs all season, the Lady Cruisers were finally able to finish up their regular season schedule on Monday with a double-header in Montesano against the. Montesano Bulldogs and the Hoquiam Grizzlies. The Cruisers would come out on top in both games to finish the season with a 17-3 record and the #1 seed into the district tournament.

“You can’t stop him, you can only hope to contain him” was a famous phrase uttered many times by ESPN’s Kenny Mayne over the years. That was the thought Montesano Head Coach Pat Pace had when he and his team were tasked with facing the state’s home run leader Hailey Rath this season. They’re not going to stop her, they just needed to contain her. Using that mantra, Montesano’s idea of containing Rath was to intentionally walk her. They employed that tactic in their first two meetings where they walked her six times. While that strategy kept Rath from doing serious damage, it did allow the Bulldogs to steal a win in their earlier meeting.

On Monday, that strategy didn't work out as well as they intentionally walked Rath in all four of her at-bats and allowed the other Lady Cruisers to do the damage for her, and allowed Rath to come around and score twice in those four walks to help the Cruisers to a 5-2 victory over the Bulldogs.

The Cruisers would lead 5-0 in the 4th when Montesano would push two runs across and both teams would hold each other scoreless the rest of the way to give the Cruisers the 5-2 win.

Berkeley Porter and Brook Blocker would both go 1-4 at the plate with each driving in a run.

Porter would also get the start on the mound for Eatonville and would go the distance, throwing seven strong innings, allowing two runs on only two hits while striking out six Bulldog hitters.

In the second game of the twin bill, the Lady Cruisers would face off against the Hoquiam Grizzlies and would come away with a 5-4 win to sweep their 3-game series.

The Hoquiam hitters would get to Cruiser starter Sara Smith early and tack on three runs off a Carron Blood three-run home run in the top of the 1st inning. Smith would settle down and pitch five scoreless innings.

Eatonville would fire back in the bottom half of the inning with three runs of their own to tie the game up at 3-3.

The Cruisers would break that tie in the bottom of the third inning when Brook Blocker would put a charge into the ball and score two on a bases-clearing double to give Eatonville a 5-3 lead.

The Grizzlies would fight back in the final inning, pushing one run across before Smith induced a game inning ground out to seal the 5-4 victory.

Smith would pick up the win after going all seven innings, giving up four runs on three hits while striking out seven.

Blocker would lead the Cruisers at the plate with a 2-4 performance with a double and driving in two. Rath would also pick up two hits in the game and drive in one run.

After finishing up the regular season 17-3 and a league title in their pocket, the Cruisers will now gear up for the 2022 Southwestern Washington 1A District IV playoffs which begin on Wednesday at Fort Borst Park in Centralia, WA.

The Cruisers will hold the #1 seed going into the playoffs and will face off against the TriCo league’s #4 seed, the La Center Wildcats on Wednesday at noon on Field #2.

Admission for the tournament is $7 for adults and $5 for seniors and students with ASB cards. Children 6 and under will be admitted for free.