Lady Cruisers Take Two From Hoquiam, Improve To 12-3
Hailey Rath and the Lady Cruiser fastpitch team continued their home run tour last week with a stop in Hoquiam, WA to play a double-header against the Hoquiam Grizzlies. The Cruisers would hit nine home runs in the two games.
Brooke Blocker (1), Hailey Rath (3), Dakota Smith (3), and Berkeley Porter (2) show off their home run balls they hit in the two games against Hoquiam. Photo: Sarah Rath
Berkeley Porter would get the home run barrage started for the Cruisers in the second inning when she took a 2-1 pitch deep to centerfield for the first score of the game to put the Cruisers up 1-0, but the Grizzlies would answer back in the bottom half of the inning with four runs of their own to take a 4-1 lead.
That lead wasn’t safe for long. In the third inning, the state's home run leader Hailey Rath would send one deep to left field and out of the park for a 2-run home run to close the gap at 4-3.
In the next inning, with runners on 1st and 2nd, Hoquiam chose to intentionally walk Rath to load the bases and then Mary Chabot drew a 5 pitch walk that sent a runner home to tie the game at four apiece.
With the bases still loaded, Brooke Blocker would foul out to the left fielder and Kyleigh Backlund would tag up and score on the play to give the Cruisers a 5-4 lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
The Cruisers would add to the score and their home run tally in the sixth inning. After another intentional walk to Rath, Chabot would double to left field before Brook Blocker hit a three-run home run to right field to make it 8-4. Eatonville would push another run across later in the inning when Sarah Smith drove in Dakotas Smith to make it 9-4.
The Grizzlies would get a run back in the bottom of the sixth inning before the Cruisers would tack on four more in the last inning when Blocker would hit a double driving in two runs and then Dakota Smith would cap things off with a two-run home run of her own scoring Blocker to make it a 13-5 final.
Sarah Smith would get the start on the mound for the Cruisers and pick up the win. She would go 5-⅓ innings, giving up one run on three hits while striking out 4.
Leading the Cruisers at the plate was Brooke Blocker who went 3-5 with a double and 6 RBI.
In the second game of the twin bill, the Cruisers would pick right up where they left off in game one. They would hit five home runs in the game and defeat the Grizzlies 20-8.
Three players would homer for the Cruisers in the game. Rath would add to her state-leading total by hitting two out of the park . Dakota Smith would also hit two home runs and Berkeley Porter would hit one out as well.
Rath would finish with 3 hits on the day with two home runs while driving in eight runs. Dakota Smith would go 4-5 with two home runs, a double, and 5 RBI.
Rath still sits at the top of the home run leader board for all classifications with 15 home runs in 15 games. As a team, Eatonville has now hit 39 home runs to lead the state. The Eatonville HS school record for a team is 43 home runs and I am certain they will break that record before post-season play begins.
The Cruisers will play host Tenino on Monday to make up their rained-out contest from earlier in the season. Eatonville will then travel to Pe Ell to take on Pe Ell-Willapa Valley on Wednesday at 4:00 pm, then a trip to Auburn Riverside to play the Ravens on Thursday at 7:00 pm before finishing the week off playing the final game of their 3-game series against Montesano at Tumwater on Friday at 4:00 pm.
