Scio High assumed the state’s No. 1 ranking in the Class 3A softball ranks Tuesday after defeating playoff-bound Taft 14-4 to conclude the regular season.
Taft sophomore catcher Hailee Danneker hit a two-run home run over a 190-foot fence, which also came back to haunt the Tigers and starting sophomore pitcher Emma Coulter.
“A couple of their home runs would have been long fly-ball outs on our home field,” Taft coach Sandy Stuart said. “That is tough on a pitcher. You work hard to throw spin and get a fly ball, and then it lands on the other side of a short-field fence.”
Friday’s winner of a 3 p.m. contest between the second-seeded Tigers (17-9, 8-2 West Valley) and third-seeded Amity (13-8, 7-3) at Dayton High School will face the conference regular-season champion Pirates (18-8, 9-1) at 5 p.m. for the top seed in the State tournament. The Bulldogs defeated Santiam Christian 13-10 Wednesday to advance to Friday’s matchup with Taft.
“We are moving on and learning from the experience,” Stuart said. “We are looking to Friday. As a coaching staff, we are just going to try to light a fire under this team and get them motivated and prepared to take down league opponents in our playoff game Friday at Dayton.”
The Tigers, who have outscored their opponents by 100 runs this season, collected just five hits against the Loggers.
“We were not outmatched by Scio as a team, but they did out-hit us,” Stuart said “We did not come out with the fire needed to get our offense going.”
Senior third baseman Naomi Rini and freshman outfielder Makena Cole joined Danneker with RBIs and runs-scored for Taft.
“We did not string many hits together, and our lineup did not produce from top to bottom,’ Stuart said. “Ultimately, we were able to get some key outs to keep quite a few runners from scoring, but we needed to gain some offensive momentum and it did not come.”
Scio (23-2, 10-0 3A PacWest) was led by senior leadoff hitter Ashton Phillips, who went 3-for-4 with four ruins and three RBIs.
Scio 14, Taft 4
TAFT AB R H BI
Kyla Knott 3 0 0 0
Naomi Rini 2 1 1 1
Hailee Danneker 3 1 1 2
Emma Coulter 3 0 0 0
Alyssa Tanksley 1 1 1 0
Corey VanDamme 2 0 0 0
Claira Tolan 2 0 1 0
Makena Cole 1 1 1 1
Kayla Lininger 2 0 0 0
TOTALS 19 4 5 4
SCIO AB R H BI
A Phillips 4 4 3 3
R McDaniel 3 1 1 1
B Young 3 2 1 2
O Zeiner 3 2 2 3
K Parazon 2 1 0 0
K Pollard 4 0 2 2
M Cooper 3 1 2 0
M Mikolas 2 2 2 3
M Reger 4 1 0 0
TOTALS 28 14 13 14
TAFT 003 10 — 4
SCIO 322 7x — 14
LOB–TAFT 3, SCIO 10. ERR–Makena Cole, Emma Coulter,M Cooper. 2B–Naomi Rini, Makena Cole, B Young, A Phillips. HR–Hailee Danneker, O Zeiner, M Mikolas, A Phillips (2). HBP–M Cooper, K Parazon, B Young. SACB–Alyssa Tanksley.
TAFT IP H R ER BB SO HR
Emma Coulter 4.00 13 14 12 5 2 4
SCIO
K Pollard 5.00 5 4 4 2 4 1
PB–O Zeiner. WP–Emma Coulter. BB–Naomi Rini, Makena Cole, O Zeiner, M Mikolas (2), K Parazon, R McDaniel.
Taft roster/schedule
Class 3A West Valley League standings
Class 3A OSAA rankings
