The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

TEKOA - The Lady Bull­dogs seemed headed for third in league after sweeping Tekoa-Oakesdale-Rosario in their last doubleheader of the regular season Tuesday.

"The girls did well today," assistant coach Des Jones said in a telephone interview after the away games. "They played together and they played smart."

In 14 innings marked by a handful of snow flurries, Dayton beat the Nighthawks 11-8 in the first game and 6-4 in the second, ending the season on a high note.

"We've struggled some and we got more losses than we care to have," she said. "But hopefully, we play our best ball next week."

Even with four league teams left with regular sea­son games this weekend, it seems likely the Bulldogs softball team is headed for third, in which case they will host the sixth-seeded league team on Tuesday afternoon.

Before their victory over TOR, the Lady Dogs were tied with Asotin for third. But even if Asotin wins its last game this weekend, Dayton will still end up higher because of its victory over the Panthers earlier in the season. If sixth-ranked Tri Cities Prep stays in that place in the league and Day­ton ends up in third, the Bull­dogs will play the Jaguars on their home turf.

Despite the cold Tuesday night, the Dayton players stayed focused on pulling off two last regular-season wins, Jones said.

Lexus Ward pitched the entire night, allowing only one walk in the fourth in­ning of the second game, and striking out seven in the first and four in the second game, the assistant coach said. "Lexus was very solid in the circle."

The Lady Dogs launched 12 hits in the first game and 7 in the second. Courtney Mings pounded out a double in the first game, scoring 2. McKayla Bickelhaupt was 4 for 5, scoring one RBI. Malia Frame was 2 for 4 and Jessica Tate got a critical hit, scoring 2 runs in the third inning of the second game as snow flurries came and went.

"It was cold, but they didn't falter on defense," Jones said. "TOR had a lot of hits, but our outfield played well against them."

Dayton ended the season 6-4 in league and 9-9 overall.

Touchet over Dayton 7-6 (Monday)

TOUCHET - In a nail biter to the end, the Lady Bulldogs softball team fell short in its come-from-be­hind victory attempt against the Touchet Indians Mon­day. Dayton lost 7-6 despite a chance to even the score in the 7th inning.

"The girls played with a lot of heart and came back from being behind 7-2," as­sistant Bulldogs coach Des Jones said.

The Lady Dogs, now 4-4 in league and 7-9 overall, had a chance to score again in the seventh with bases loaded and no outs. But Jones said "poor base coach­ing decisions led to the In­dians shutting us down and taking the win."

Touchet led off the scor­ing with a run in the sec­ond, which the Bulldogs answered with two runs in the fourth. But Touchet outscored Dayton 2-0 in the fifth and 4-3 in the sixth. It was the rally in the bottom of the sixth that kept the Bulldogs in the game.

Pitcher Sam Harting hit a base-clearing double that scored three runners to bring the score up to 7-5 still in favor of the host team, which pounded out hits that scored four runs on their offense earlier in the inning.

After Touchet went score­less in the top of the seventh, Dayton scored again in the bottom of the inning to put it within batting distance of evening the score, but the effort failed to put them over the top.

Jones lauded Harting for her efforts on the mound as well. She had just one walk and struck out 11, the as­sistant coach said. "She had a great day pitching."

Kellie Moore, Courtney Mings and Malia Frame matched Harting's batting in numbers, each hammering out a hit. The team had 6 errors. Those numbers com­pared to the Indians' 9 hits and 3 errors.