When the Rainier High School fastpitch team advanced to the district tournament last season, the Mountaineers succumbed to the pressure of the postseason. They lost back-to-back games against Kalama and Forks by a combined score of 13-4.
Head coach Katie Qualls, who is entering her second season leading the program, said those tough moments on the big stage will define their mentality this season.
“I think that some of those kids that had done really well but were fairly new to the sport, the pressure got to them. It broke them down a little bit,” she said. “You can’t make those mistakes and come back as easily as you could in another sport. Those small moments are big moments.”
The Mountaineers, who finished 19-7 and 9-2 in the Central 2B League, have established a simple goal for themselves heading into 2024: finish higher in districts. Leaving the tournament winless left a sour taste in their mouths, but the veteran-laden team expects to be back and better this time around.
“I think we can finish top three in the league. We’ll be really good,” said junior shortstop Brooklynn Swenson, who took home Central 2B All-League first team honors last year. She batted .541 with team highs in hits (40), doubles (11), triples (seven) and runs batted in (40).
Qualls, Swenson’s mother and coach, agreed with her daughter but added that the team wouldn’t settle for a higher finish at districts.
“Their main goal is to go further in districts this year, but, of course, they want to go to state. I think that’s a collective team goal,” Qualls said. “My goal for the team is to make sure that everyone is involved. I think it’s gonna be a little bit more difficult this year because we don’t have a junior varsity team, and we graduated more kids than I thought we were going to last year.”
The team also returns fellow All-League first-teamers Keira Anderson and Ryleigh Cruse, the latter of whom shined as an eighth grader on the mound last season. She pitched complete games in both of Rainier’s district tournament losses, and she learned a lot about herself as the Mountaineers relied upon her heavily toward the end of the year.
“It was an amazing year. I couldn’t have asked for a better season or better teammates,” she said. “It was definitely nerve-wracking coming in as an eighth grader, but I’ve been playing with a lot of these girls since I was little, so I didn’t feel a lot of pressure.”
Qualls said her ace grew not just on the field but off of it thanks to her experience playing as an eighth grader. She added that Cruse is “just now finding her groove” on the mound.
“That experience really helped her socially and academically transition into high school. She’s gonna do amazing things,” Qualls said. “She can get a lot better. She has so much potential, and we’re gonna find out how much better she got in the offseason.”
Anderson, Cruse and Swenson are all transitioning from the winter sports season, which was fruitful for each. Anderson placed sixth in the 170-pound division at the Mat Classic last month, while Cruse qualified as an alternate in the 235-pound division. Swenson led the basketball team to the state tournament in Spokane, where they fell short to Toutle Lake in the Round of 12.
The transition from winter to spring has been toughest for Swenson, who began practicing with the softball team just days after the loss in Spokane.
“It’s definitely been hard. It’s upsetting, but it’s time to move on. The first day was interesting because it had been a long time since I had swung a bat,” she said. “But it’s fun to be around the team and the new people. I like the chemistry we have on this team.”
Rainier was tasked with practicing at the elementary field and in the high school’s old gym since their baseball and softball fields were unusable for most of the offseason. This presented a challenge, especially for the newcomers, to learn and fine tune the fundamentals with inconsistent environments.
“It’s hard for the new people to grasp and understand situations when you’re not on the field. It’s so much different when you’re actually on the field compared to a gym,” Anderson, a catcher, said. “It’s difficult for them to learn.”
The challenging offseason didn’t prove too detrimental for the Mountaineers, as they opened the season with a 6-4 win over Cascade Christian School on Monday, March 11, at the Regional Athletic Complex (RAC) in Olympia. Anderson went 3 for 4 with a pair of RBIs in the win, while Cruse pitched a complete game, striking out five and allowing five earned runs on 13 hits.
The Mountaineers also faced Mossyrock at the RAC on Tuesday, but results were not available before press time. Rainier will hit the road for a game against North Thurston on Tuesday, March 19, and play at Raymond-South Bend on Thursday, March 21, before its home opener against Tenino on Tuesday, March 26.
