YATES CENTER — Welcome to the “why not us” softball regional. Every team in the 2010 Kansas Class 2-1A Regional Softball Tournament had a chance to win it all.
Yates Center High’s Wildcats decided it was going to be their regional championship won on their field. It happened Saturday.
Rain forced semifinal games and the championship game to be moved to Saturday. Action began in the morning.
Yates Center rolled over Elk Valley 10-3 on a late rally. West Elk outlasted Humboldt High’s Lady Cubs 13-12.
West Elk was leading 2-1 through three innings. In the top of the fourth, the Wildcats exploded for 10 runs for an 11-2 lead.
Yates Center added two more runs in the fifth then held West Elk in its half of the inning. The Wildcats won 13-2 in a run-ruled five inning game.
“We overcame a couple of defensive errors to play a pretty clean game,” said Kathe Hamman, Yates Center head coach.
“The girls are playing with more confidence.”
Daryean Estes, sophomore pitcher, gave up four hits, walked two and struck out five in the title game. Kassy Reynolds is the Wildcats’ senior catcher.
“Kassy had another great game behind the plate. Daryean pitched a great game and our outfield caught everything that came their way,” Hamman said.
In the championship game, Estes had two doubles and Drew Spencer had a double and two singles. Autumn Douglas and Molly Baker each had two singles.
Jessica Hartwig connected for a triple. Sierra Lenard had a base hit.
It is the first trip to the Kansas Class 2-1A State Tournament for the Wildcats. Yates Center’s last state trip was to the Class 3A tournament in 2001.
“It has been a long drought. It was nice winning at home,” Hamman said.
Yates Center improved to 9-12 on the season. The Wildcats go into Friday’s state tournament first round as the No. 8 seed.
Yates Center plays top-seeded Spearville (22-1) at 5 p.m. at Trusler Sports Complex in Emporia.
More on the Wildcats preparation for state along with the state tournament pairings later this week in the Register.
Yates Center found itself behind 3-1 after five innings in Saturday’s regional semifinal against Elk Valley. Reynolds had a home run in the first for the Wildcats.
Hamman said a couple of key plays were made by the Yates Center defense. Center fielder Jessica Hartwig threw out an Elk Valley player at first. The runner circled first toward second base; Hartwig’s throw went to Spencer who tagged the runner out.
Bailee Stuber got the ball back in from left field quickly to shortstop Maggie German. German made the relay to Douglas at third who tagged out an Elk Valley runner trying to stretch a double into a triple.
Yates Center produced six runs in the sixth and three more in the seventh to take command of the game. Estes was the winning pitcher, giving up six hits and two walks plus striking out four.
Hartwig had a triple and two singles as did Douglas. Reynolds added a triple to her home run. Estes had two singles. Hitting a single each were German, Spencer, Lenard, Addie Hughes and Stuber.
Humboldt ended up 7-12. There was no report made to the Register by deadline on the Lady Cubs’ semifinal regional game.
YCHS girls win regional title
