Lady Raiders move on to state

The Lady Raider softball team pulled off a big upset at the District 5-6 tournament last weekend when they beat Bridgeport to move on to the state tournament in Yakima this weekend.

This move toward state started with the Lady Raider 15-9 win at White Swan May 14, when LR put together a solid game of defense and had three girls bat above .500.

Keya Fast Horse hit everything that was thrown her way, Tristan Adolph batted .750 for the game, and Riley Epperson was .600 at the plate.

Beating White Swan allowed the Lady Raiders to advance to the second round of district play at the Sterling Sportsplex in East Wenatchee, not Ellensburg as previously reported.

There, on May 17, the Lady Raiders had to first play Liberty Bell who had swept LR in the season series.

The Lady Raiders put up a great effort, batting .462 for the game and playing a much improved defense. But with too many of their runners left on base and some LR errors at the wrong time, the Mountain Lions took the win, 12-9.

Ashley Lezard had the hot bat for LR, hitting 1.000 against Liberty Bell. Riley Epperson had another great game at the plate, batting .800. And Kayla Doney went .750 for the game, impressing Head Coach Jamie Lezard.

The loss put the Lady Raiders into the afternoon loser-out game against the Bridgeport Fillies.

The Fillies, too, had swept the Lady Raiders in the season series. That was forgotten by the Lady Raiders as they pulled off the upset, beating the Fillies 16-1.

Five Lady Raiders batted .750 for the game: Alana Epperson, Riley Epperson, Lezard, Savannah Marin, and Savannah Kentner. Lezard backed up her batting with pitching a game in which she gave up only one hit and threw three out of four pitches for strikes.

“I am very proud of our young Lady Raiders making it to state,” Coach Lezard said. “It all started to come together as a team, and we just need to keep playing our game at state.”

With the wins, the Lady Raiders’ record improved to 7-14 overall.

They will play at 9 a.m. on Friday at Field 3 of the Gateway Sports Complex in Yakima against the Pe Ell Lady Trojans. Pe Ell has placed in every 2B softball tourney and have won the state championship in 2010 and 2012.

If the Lady Raiders win, they will play again on Friday at 7 p.m. on Field 2; if they lose they will play on Field 2 at 3 p.m. Those later games will be against either Asotin or LaConner. LaConner comes into state play with a 17-5 overall record. Asotin finished 4-4 in Blue Mountain League play.