PORTLAND – The Class 2A/1A state championship softball game was exactly how title games should be.

In a back-and-forth contest that – quite literally – could have gone to either team, Pilot Rock scored a run in the bottom of the eighth inning to clinch the title, beating Irrigon 2-1 on Saturday at Erv Lind Stadium in Portland.

After Pilot Rock loaded the bases in the extra frame, the Rockets’ Piper Carstens came striding to the plate, knowing she was the right person in the right spot for her club.

Carstens hammered a pitch off the centerfield fence in her previous at bat that narrowly missed clearing the wall for a home run, but she wouldn’t need her big stick in her final plate appearance.

Working the count to a full three balls, two strikes, Carstens let a low fastball sail by her for ball four, which forced home Chyenne Carter and sent the Rocket faithful into euphoria.

“I didn’t even know it was the fourth ball,” Carstens said. “I had a pretty bad swing up there before, but I went up there looking for a base hit. I knew I had to battle and just let that fourth ball go by.”

The late-game heroics would not have been possible if it hadn’t been for a game-saving play from Pilot Rock rightfielder Calie Kohl.

Irrigon tied the game on a throwing error, which would have been the final out in the seventh, and the Knights threatened to tack on another to go ahead.

With two out in the seventh, Cheyenne McKenney stroked a single into right field with catcher Staci Stanger on second for the Knights. Stanger raced around third and sped to home plate trying to score.

Kohl threw a beautiful, one-hop throw to catcher AmyLee Perrine. The catcher handled the throw and slid over to block home plate just as Stanger slid in, placed the tag on Stanger’s leg, and home plate umpire Ron Wagner made an emphatic “out” call to save Pilot Rock’s state title dreams.

“Oh my gosh, my heart stopped,” Carstens said about seeing the play unfold. “I didn’t think Calie got the ball there in time.”

Rockets head coach Rick Hoisington said a play against Weston-McEwen last season really helped shaped Kohl into the aggressive outfielder she is now.

“She has a great arm, we’ve been talking about it all year,” Hoisington said. “Today was her day to shine. She had the game of her life.”

Kohl, one of Pilot Rock’s four seniors, was named Pilot Rock’s Qwest Player of the Game for her efforts.

Pilot Rock was outhit by Irrigon 8-5, and while the Rocket defense made two errors, it always seemed to be there when they needed it the most. Starting pitcher Renee Mulcare struck out just one Knight on the afternoon, but had 24 putouts and 16 assists from the defense backing her up.

“I had to have faith in my team,” she said. “We had a couple of errors and I couldn’t let it get to me. I just had to go out and do my thing.”

While the modesty and level-headed nature of Mulcare is apparent, Hoisington said that he wasn’t sure anyone on the team wanted a state title more than his senior hurler.

“She’s a bulldog. When the going gets tough, she gets tougher,” he said. “She did that in the last three game playoff games. Our opponents had opportunities and she shut them down.”

With three of the four teams competing for spots in the title game being from Special District 5 in Eastern Oregon, Hoisington has been saying for a few years that the power has switched to the eastern half of the state.

“We face good, quality pitchers all the time, and that makes quite the difference at this level,” he said.

For Irrigon, Noelle Wright pitched 7.1 innings and struck out seven, but issued five costly walks. McKenney ended the day going 2 for 3, and Leslie Coffman and Alisha Mego also had two hits as well. Wright was named Irrigon’s Qwest Player of the Game.