Tiger softball wraps up season

Published 3:20 pm Thursday, May 10, 2012

Brent Baker / staff photo — Tonasket catcher Mackenzie Wheeler chases down an Okanogan baserunner during Friday’s season-ending doubleheader.

TONASKET – Tonasket’s softball team didn’t get its long-awaited league win. But first-year coach Emily Rimestad said after Friday’s doubleheader sweep at the hands of playoff-bound Okanogan that she felt that the team was on the right course despite a rough final week.

“As a team we grew leaps and bounds,” Rimestad said. “We had girls thinking about plays and what was to come. I saw a team that really wanted to win games there toward the end and put in some great effort toward that.”

That was particularly true in the next-to-last week of the season, which saw the Tigers twice carry leads into the final innings against Cashmere and Omak, only to see the Bulldogs and Pioneers come back late.

In Friday’s wet and cold season-ender, not much went right as the Tigers fell 20-1 and 26-3.

In the opener, Sadie Long singled and later scored on Jessica Maier’s hit for the Tigers’ lone run. The Tigers mustered some late offense against the Bulldogs in the second game, with Maier’s RBI double providing the highlight.

“Next year we’re going to work on batting,” Rimestad said. “We struggled with that a lot this year. Hopefully we’ll get some other girls going on pitching. The team’s pitcher (Long and Rilee Fewkes) are seniors next year, so we’ll be losing them at the end of next season.”

The Tigers finished the season 4-15 (0-15 CTL) and graduate six seniors.