Forest Grove All-Stars finish third at district tourney

Forest Grove uses early scoring barrage to hold off Raleigh Hills-Sunset in third-place game

By Tyler Richardson

The Forest Grove News-Times, Jul 28, 2010 (1 Reader comment)

Forest Grove pitcher Emily Peters delivers a pitch during last Saturday’s game against Raleigh Hills-Sunset at the Little League District 4 Majors softball tournament in Portland. Peters and the Vikings defeated Raleigh Hills 7-5 on Saturday to finish the tournament in third place. Tigard won the tourney and will represent District 4 at the upcoming Little League World Series, which will be held at Alpenrose Dairy in Portland from Aug. 12-18. Parts of the tournament will be broadcast on ESPN2.

Tyler Richardson / Pamplin Media Group

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PORTLAND – The weather was hot last Saturday at Alpenrose Dairy, but the bats of both Raleigh Hills-Sunset and Forest Grove were even hotter.

The two teams combined to score 12 runs in the first three innings, but the scoring ceased after that and Forest Grove held on for a 7-5 victory. With the win, Forest Grove earned third place in the Little League District 4 Majors softball tournament.

Forest grove scored four runs in the first inning off Raleigh Hills-Sunset pitcher Julia Harbolt.

The first three batters for Forest Grove all reached to load the bases. Leena Silvis hit a two-run single for the first runs of the game. Kindel Bailey then earned an RBI on a fielder’s choice, and Silvis later scored on an error to give Forest Grove a 4-0 lead.

“I thought we did great,” Harbolt said of her early innings. “I just wanted to throw strikes and I knew if they put the ball in play we could get some outs.”

Raleigh Hills-Sunset battled back to score two runs in the second inning. Kaci Krech led off with a walk and stole second. Riley Pendergast followed with a single, moving Krech to third. Krech later scored when Harbolt dropped down an RBI bunt, which also moved Pendergast to third. Pendergast then scored on an infield single by Payge Brown.

Forest Grove was determined to stay ahead, and tacked on three more runs in the second inning. With two outs, Sarah Hess drew a walk and J.J. Leuthold followed with a single. Silvis then hit another two-run single and scored on a base hit by Bailey to put Forest Grove ahead, 7-2.

Raleigh Hills-Sunset tried to keep things interesting in the third by scoring three more runs. Annie Wissmiller led off with a double. Cory Meyer drew a walk and both Wissmiller and her scored on a Forest Grove throwing error, which also put Krech on second. Krech later scored on another Forest Grove error to reach the final score of 7-5.

“I think last night was their big night. They didn’t have the energy tonight and we gave up seven runs early,” Raleigh Hills-Sunset coach Paul Stemberg said.