High school sports roundup: Rath homers twice, Eatonville cruises past Franklin Pierce for 2A SPSL softball title
By the time Mother Nature got involved, the Eatonville High School Cruisers already were raining down runs on Franklin Pierce on Thursday night.
Not even two rain delays, both in the bottom of the second inning, could slow the Cruisers’ offense in the Class 2A South Puget Sound League championship game. Eatonville beat the Cardinals, 20-0, in three innings at Foss High School in Tacoma.
By agreement, the coaches determined before the game that if either team led by more than 15 runs after three innings the game would be complete and ended.
That became something of a possibility after Eatonville scored six times in the bottom of the first to take a 6-0 lead. Then the odyssey of the second began.
Prior to the first delay, Eatonville already had sent 12 batters to the plate and scored 11 times.
Leading the onslaught, as she’s done all season, was Hailey Rath.
The third and 12th batter up in the inning, Rath smacked a pair of home runs that each hit off the top of the fence 185 feet away to the opposite field in right center. Those were Rath’s second and third hits in as many at-bats Thursday, and drove in a total of five runs in the inning, giving her an almost unbelievable 58 total RBI over the Cruisers’ 13-game season.
The home runs gave Rath 15 in 13 games, a new Eatonville single-season record. Rath took over the homer record from her own cousin, Brooklyn Lucht, who hit 13 in 23 games in 2019.
“It’s awesome, actually,” Rath said of eclipsing her cousin’s mark. “I knew I was going to come out and work my hardest this year. I didn’t think it would be this crazy.”
Rath’s second homer put Eatonville (12-1) on top, 17-0. Three batters later, and after a long second delay, Brooke Blocker hit her own three-run shot to complete the scoring. It was the fourth home run of the game for Eatonville, who got a three-run homer from freshman Haley Smith in the first inning, as well. That bomb was Smith’s first as a Cruiser, and drew accolades from her appreciative teammates after the game.
As for Franklin Pierce, the Cardinals did put runners on base in each of their three innings. But the Cardinals never got a single runner past second base in the title game.
“I’ve never had a team blend so well,” Eatonville coach Jen Smith said. “Not just the victories, but the personalities. There was not a single bit of pettiness. This was a coach’s dream team. That’s the only way to describe it.”
Eatonville won its final 12 games of the season after losing its opener to 2A power Rochester in a nonleague contest. Smith said the Cruisers tried to schedule Rochester again later in the year, but couldn’t make it happen.
Instead, Eatonville stepped up to play 4A program Graham-Kapowsin on April 28, winning that contest 18-7. The Cruisers in 2021 were so dominant that they rarely played full games, and starters gave way midway into mercy-shortened contests.
“I never thought it would be this crazy,” Smith said. “We played only one seven-inning game.”
And yet Eatonville still amassed 235 RBI as a team.
As for Rath, just a junior, to her 58 RBI and 15 home runs she added a .704 batting average and a slugging percentage of over 1.800. And, she’ll be back for her senior year next spring.
“Maybe I’ll break my own record,” she said.
2A SPSL BOYS SOCCER
Fife 2, White River 1: In the moments after Fife defeated White River for the 2A SPSL soccer title, coach Tony Crudo turned to his assistant and said, “This has nothing to do with the game,” as his players exploded with excitement.
Instead, it was normalcy, Crudo believes. It was having one experience like things used to be, the Fife coach said.
The Trojans hoisted a league trophy Thursday night. They posed for photos as league champions. And they hugged each other.
“And for one moment, one very short moment, everything was the way it was supposed to be,” Crudo said.
The match was competitive throughout, and knotted at 1-1 heading into halftime.
“And after that, it was really two teams that didn’t want to make a mistake and fought like crazy for every little inch or what they could get,” Crudo said.
Following a scoreless second half, the game continued on into stoppage time, though Crudo says neither team even came close to netting a game-winner in the final minutes. When a team threatened to score, the other prioritized clearing the ball out of danger.
The match ended with Fife prevailing in a penalty kick shootout.
After the Trojans closed out a 6-2-3 season with a win, Crudo emphasized the importance of his younger players in their preparations for the seasons ahead.
“The game was a chance for the young players to get in and play games, and to get ready for next year,” he said.
Chester March took all of Fife’s free kicks and penalty kicks throughout the season. He ran the offense and defense, and was the team’s leader. And Sam Shuck, Crudo said, was the program’s MVP defender who played every minute all season.
“Those are the two players that we counted on, that never came out of the game, that kept everybody together, and kept us on the rails,” Crudo said.
2A SPSL TRACK AND FIELD
Fife junior Kaiha Gayles won three titles in the 100-meter hurdles (season-best 15.15 seconds), 300 hurdles (47.09) and long jump (16-10 1/2), and was the runner-up in the triple jump (31-10) at the 2A SPSL track and field championships Thursday and Friday at Franklin Pierce.
Gayles ranks second statewide in the 100 hurdles, third in the 300 hurdles (season-best 47.05 in a meet against White River last month) and fourth in the long jump (personal-best 17-9 1/2 in a meet against Eatonville last month).
Enumclaw senior Johanna Brown won the 100 (13.29), 200 (27.6) and 400 (season-best 1:00.35).
Washington junior MaryAlice Mitchell won the 800 (season-best 2:21.92), 1,600 (season-best 5:20.65) and 3,200 (12:28.47).
Clover Park senior Quinn Fenn won both the discus (personal-best 98-4) and javelin (90-11).
On the boys side, Steilacoom junior Cole Miller won both the 100 (11.53) and 200 (23.99) and ran the anchor leg of Steilacoom’s winning 4x100 relay (44.5).
Eatonville senior Cameron Hatler won both the 1,600 (4.29.99) and 3,200 (9:52.28) while Cruisers senior Jager Roulst won the high jump (5-8) and long jump (personal-best 22-11 1/2).
Fife won the girls team title (132 points) over Enumclaw (102) and Steilacoom (89). Eatonville (169) won the boys team title over Steilacoom (146) and Fife (66).
Staff writers Lauren Smith and Tyler Wicke contributed to this report.
This story was originally published May 7, 2021 at 12:39 AM.