On a cold, blistery afternoon, the Rainier High School softball team’s bats eventually turned up the heat in the team’s home opener against Central 2B League foe Onalaska.
After an 18-3 blowout loss in the Mountaineers’ first league game, they emphatically responded with a 20-5 hammering in the second game — a non-league contest that lasted just three innings due to the mercy rule.
With freshman ace Ryleigh Cruse on the mound to kick off the doubleheader for Rainier, Onalaska capitalized on early walks to score a run in the first inning. Cruse tied the game at the plate in the bottom of the frame with an RBI single to bring Keira Anderson home. The Loggers broke open the contest with a seven-run third inning in which they capitalized on several errors, walks and wild pitches. Rainier’s resilient bunch drew closer in the third with a pair of runs, including one on an Anderson RBI single, but Onalaska got the last laugh with four runs in the fourth and six more in the seventh.
The Mountaineers outfield struggled to make routine plays as multiple potential inning-ending fly balls were dropped to keep the onslaught going. After two and a half hours, Rainier had about 15 minutes to prepare for a second game after losing 18-3 to Onalaska.
Rainier’s offense immediately picked up the slack, as each of the first four batters reached base. Raychel Hansen’s bunt single scored Olivia Earsley from second, and she reached home after a passed ball. Brooklynn Swenson stole home, and Anderson scored on another passed ball.
Eighth-grade pitcher Gracie Lantz started for Rainier in the second game and pitched her way out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the first inning to keep Onalaska scoreless.
“Lantz starting and holding her own as an eighth grader was awesome to see,” Rainier head coach Katie Qualls said.
The Mountaineers opened up an 8-0 lead in the second inning thanks to Earsley’s RBI single and strong base running to score on a wild pitch, along with a two-run triple from Anderson, in which she scored on an error.
After the Loggers put one run on the board in the second, Rainier slammed any chance of a comeback shut in the third with a 12-run third inning. The Mountaineers had not scored more than 10 runs in any of their first six games and exceeded that in one frame. Swenson hit her first home run of the year on a three-run drive to center field. On her second at bat of the inning, she drove in two more runs on a double to left field. Swenson finished the second contest going 3 for 4 with five RBIs. Anderson and Cruse each delivered RBI singles to bring Rainier’s run total to 20 in just the top of the third inning. Onalaska’s four runs in the third inning could not prevent the Mountaineers’ mercy rule victory, one that came as a relief for a team that spent nearly six hours on the field.
“After a very long first game loss, it was great to see the team come together and persevere in the second game,” Qualls said. “Through the rain and cold and playing two games and being on the field from 2 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., the entire team deserves recognition. It wasn’t the outcome we hoped for, but they are putting in the work, and we know what we need to work on.”
The Mountaineers (4-3, 0-1 C2BL) return to the road with a trip to Morton-White Pass (1-6, 1-3 C2BL) at 4 p.m. on Thursday, April 11.
