Softball Outlaws win thriller, fall in second round; baseball season ends with playoff loss

Published 11:59 am Monday, May 29, 2023

ENTERPRISE — A thrilling, walk-off win in what head coach Gary Gassett said was one of the best he had seen sent the Wallowa Valley softball team to the second round, where the Outlaws ran into the same foe that eliminated them a year ago — Yamhill-Carlton.

Cooper Nave hit a walk-off, three-run home run in the bottom of the eighth inning to lift the Outlaws to a 3-1 win over Harrisburg on Wednesday, May 24, before the team went on the road Friday and fell to the Tigers, 13-2.

“I would say that’s probably one of the best games I’ve been a part of or seen in high school,” Gassett said of the Wednesday thriller. “Going into the top of the eighth, 0-0, that was intense. That was a well-played game on both sides.”

The teams were scoreless — and neither posed much of an offensive threat — until the eighth, when Harrisburg’s Aaliyah Gaboriault legged out a one-out triple and scored on a fielder’s choice by Kaya Taylor.

The Outlaws had struggled for seven innings to get much going against Taylor, the Eagles’ pitcher, managing just four hits, but had the top of their lineup coming up to bat in the eighth.

“We were in a really good place in our order,” Gassett said.

Sophie Moeller — who defensively kept Harrisburg off the board in the fourth when she threw Gaboriault out at home — was hit by a pitch and moved to second on a wild pitch. Aimee Meyers followed with a bunt single, which brought Nave to the plate.

Meyers stole second, and Nave worked the count full before pulling a pitch that was a bit high and outside over the left-centerfield wall.

Gassett said Nave later told him she felt she could “lift this pitch and I can drive in that run,” he recalled.

Meyers ended up earning the win in the circle in the pitcher’s duel, allowing just the one run on two hits in eight innings. She walked one and struck out eight.

Moeller homered to lead off the game against Yamhill-Carlton Friday, but little else went right as the Tigers toppled the Outlaws in five innings, ending their season for the second year in a row.

“Everybody had a feeling of deja vu,” Gassett said. “…You were going to have to play a really good game for us to beat them. We made four errors. (We) would have had to play flawlessly.”

Wallowa Valley managed just two hits, while Yamhill-Carlton recorded 13 hits — including three home runs — off Meyers.

The season concludes for Wallowa Valley with a record of 18-6.

“I think overall it was a good year for us,” Gassett said. “I think if we lose that playoff game at home it sets us back from where we want to be. We want to go deeper.”

Baseball falls at homeThe Wallowa Valley baseball team, in the first home playoff game in Wallowa County since Joseph hosted a contest in 2008, fell behind La Pine early and never could recover in an 8-4 loss to the Hawks on Wednesday, ending their season at 17-7.

“The biggest problem was we just couldn’t get anything going offensively,” head coach Zack Grover said. “We had an error or two early, and they did what good teams do, capitalized on it and scored.”

La Pine scored in each of the first three innings, and added two runs in the fourth to pull ahead 5-0.

The Eagles’ offense came to life in the fourth, with a three-run home run by Lane Rouse getting Wallowa Valley on the board and within two runs.

La Pine, though, never let up offensively. Both teams added runs in the fifth to make it 6-4, but the Hawks added two insurance runs in the sixth for the final margin.

“They were a good team, a good-hitting team,” Grover said of La Pine, which managed three runs off Rouse and five off Drew Beachy, the Eagles’ two pitchers. “They just did their job.”

Offensively, Gabe Nobles, Maclane Melville and Ty Prince each had two hits for the Eagles.

While the season ended short of one of the team goals of a deep playoff run, Grover said he is excited about what could lie ahead for the Eagles.

“It was a success, for sure,” he said of the season. “As coaches, we talked a lot and assessed things as we go. Excited about next year. (We’re) seeing a lot of growth. That’s exciting. Looking at the future, it’s still pretty bright.”