It was a history making season for the Kingston fastpitch softball team before seeing the campaign come to an end with a 7-2 loss to juggernaut Washington in the Class 3A semifinals on Saturday.
The Lady Redskins won the first district title in school history and also recorded their first-ever state tournament victory in a 7-4 decision over district rival Silo in the opening round.
Kingston raced out of the gate in the opener, plating single runs in each of the first two innings against Silo. Kate Ratzlaff reached on an error in the opening frame and scored on a Kanna Stroud sacrifice fly and then in second it was a Ratzlaff two-out RBI single that added to the lead.
Coach Aaron Minor’s squad looked like it had broken things open in the top of the fourth with three more tallies to extend the margin to 5-0. Ratzlaff set the table with her second hit in front of a walk and run-scoring single by Stroud. Khloe Hall tacked on another run with a sacrifice fly and Ava Bain singled to knock in the final tally.
Silo responded though, taking advantage of wildness by Lady Redskin starting hurler Gracie Bridgman and an error to load the bases ahead of a triple and groundout that cut the deficit to only one run against Hall in relief.
Keeton Hatley and Ratzlaff each singled an inning laterandthreestraightwalks forced in a pair of runs to push the margin to 7-4.
Bridgman returned to the pitching circle and settled in somewhat,gettinganinningending strikeout with the bases loaded in the bottom of the stanza as well as working out of a bases loaded no out jam in the final frame.
Ratzlaff notched three of the club’s nine hits in the contest as Stroud and Hatley contributed two apiece. Hall and Bain had the other hits. Bridgman earned the pitching win, yielding only two hits in six innings. She struck out 10 and walked eight.
Things looked promising in the semifinal as Kingston countered two early Washington runs with two of its own in the second stanza. Dextry Bowerman got things started with a triple and scored on a Bain single. Ratzlaff’s two-out hit plated the tying run.
Despite several other scoring chances that was all the Lady Redskins could put on the scoreboard with the Lady Warriorscounteringwithtwo runs in the second, two in the fourth and another tally in the fifth.
Ratzlaff contributed three of Kingston’s seven hits in the game. Destry Davis added a double with singles from Stroud and Bain to go along with Bowerman’s triple as the Lady Redskins finished with a 30-11 record.