Sweet Home’s softball season ended Thursday, May 26, in a 14-1 loss at Henley High School in Klamath Falls during the first round of state playoffs.
Henley won under the 10-run rule in five innings.
“In the Henley game, we just didn’t show up to play, and we beat ourselves,” said Coach Shane Cochran.
“We had a couple of bad calls that went against us off the bat; downhill slide from there.” Madi Barringer hit well with a home run and a single, Cochran said. “It just never worked out, though.”
Barringer said she thought the loss was the result of a number of factors for the Huskies.
“I think just a lot of it was how nervous everyone was and the long drive,” she said. “ We do have a very young team.”
Cochran was happy with the season, he said. “We had a real good season. Next year, I’m guessing we’ll be the team to beat in our league. We’re just going to basically be the same team next year, maybe a couple changes. We definitely should be ready.”
Elmira, the Sky-Em League champion, will graduate four seniors.
Cochran didn’t know for sure what to expect as the season started. The team is young and will graduate no seniors this year. The Huskies have just two juniors. The remaining nine players are freshmen and sophomores.
“They exceeded my expectations for sure,” he said.
Barringer said she thought her team exceeded a lot of expectations.
“We worked really hard. We got a lot farther than most people thought (last year, the team made it to the play-in round). We definitely worked our butts off this season. I think we bonded a lot better this year. We definitely had a lot of chemistry.”
At Henley, the Huskies fell behind fast as the Hornets scored six runs, taking advantage of three errors and a double, in the first inning.
Two more runs in the second, and the Huskies trailed 8-0. The Huskies held Henley off in the third, and Barringer opened the fourth inning hitting a home run.
Henley finished the game scoring another six runs in the fourth inning and holding off the Huskies in the top of five.
On two outs, Barringer also singled in the first inning. Brianna Hoffman doubled in the second, and Sunhee singled in the top of the fifth inning.
Maddie Hilyard led the way for Henley, going 3-3 with four RBIs and a run.
Hoffman threw three strikeouts while giving up 12 hits, two walks and 14 runs, six of them earned, in four innings of pitching.
MacKenzie Virtue, formerly of Sweet Home, gave up three hits, two walks and one earned run in four innings. She struck out two Huskies. Pitching in relief, Lilly Poe gave up a hit and struck out two batters.
The 13th-ranked Huskies finish the year 13-2 in league and 20-7 overall. They defeated their toughest league rival, sixth-ranked Elmira, in one out of three games. It was Elmira’s only loss of the year up to that point. The Huskies finished second in league.
The Huskies defeated North Bend 13-3 under the 10-run rule in six innings at home two weeks ago to qualify for playoffs against fifth-ranked Henley.
Henley lost a 10-inning game to Gladstone 1-0 on May 27. Gladstone was scheduled to face McLouglin on Tuesday to move on to the June 4 championship game.
Elmira, which had lost only to Sweet Home and then to McNary in an extra post-league game, lost 3-1 to Ontario in the first round of playoffs. Ontario moved on to face Banks, losing 5-1. Banks was scheduled to play against Scappoose Tuesday for the right to play in the championship.
Barringer said she is looking forward to building on what this team has done this year and reaching the state championship.
Elmira will remain the Huskies’ toughest opponent, she believes, and they’ll need to get that win next year to win the league championship.