The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

SPOKANE - If the Lady Bulldogs' last two games of the regionals tournament Saturday were a struggle, the first matchup against Colfax showed them at their best. The 9-6 victory over the other "Bulldogs" secured a seed at state and placed Dayton fourth in District 7 & 9.

In the end, a three-run homer from Jessica Tate ac- counted for the three-point margin that put the Lady Dogs over the top in their game against Colfax.

"It was really cool," Tate said with an "H" smeared on both cheeks for her out-ofthe park hit. The senior said she never before hit a home run in her time as a softball player until she got two in the past week and a half: one against WP in district play- offs and one against Colfax this weekend.

The bullpen swarmed her after she left the other Bulldogs' defense helpless against her teammates' runs across the bags, applauding her high-scoring hit. But the game was a solid team effort with all starters contributing and keeping Colfax at bay and trailing throughout the game.

Sarah Phillips scored first on errors in the field and on home plate. A line drive from pitcher Sam Harting put Frame on third, paving the way for a hit from McK- ayla Bickelhaupt that scored her before the end of the first inning. Colfax came back with one run in the bottom of the first.

"Colfax started out rather slow and made errors on two of our bunts," head coach Terry Robbins said. "Once we were ahead of them, we were able to keep them down."

Keeping that early lead is something Dayton has struggled with throughout the season, Robbins said, but they managed it in the first tourney game.

Dayton took another bite out of the rival dogs with a hit from Kelly Moore and scores from her and Frame in the top of the second. The teams went scoreless in the third like a quiet before the storm in the fourth when Tate pounded out her hit and put her team ahead 7-1.

Colfax had answers in the bottom of the fourth, getting past Dayton's defensive shield on errors that allowed them three runs to bring Colfax within 3 at 7-4.

The scoring would not resume until the final inning after Bickelhaupt almost cleared the fence for a homer ignited several Dayton hits that loaded the bases and led to two more runs on Colfax errors.

Colfax answer in the bottom of the seventh - two runs on deep hits - fell short and Dayton won its first en- counter 9-6.

Both Touchet Valley teams won their first game with WP beating Mary Walker 11-3, but when they met on the diamond for the second game it appeared the Tigers had more momen- tum. WP scored four runs in the first inning, to which Dayton answered with only one run from Frame on a hit by Sam Harting.

Dayton's defense tight- ened in the second inning, keeping the Tigers scoreless despite solid hits and steals that loaded the bases before the Lady Dogs left them stranded. Dayton loaded the bases in the bottom of the second, but was only able convert one run before WP pitcher Jen Nichols struck out the last Bulldogs batter.

WP came out in the fourth like a house on fire, scor­ing three runs and pushing Dayton further out against a rival they have been unable to beat in all four match ups this year.

The Bulldogs "really thought we could win it and so did I," Robbins said. "We tried to fight back."

Dayton first comeback run came in the bottom of the fifth when Frame scored on a line drive double from Tate. WP quickly scored its last run of the game on a Bulldogs error in the sixth, a point Dayton answered with only one more point in the bottom of the sixth.

The Lady Dogs came out "exceptionally tired" in the third game against North­west Christian, a team that placed second in state last year, Robbins said. Dayton lost the 5 pm game 11-0.

The girls tried to get past the Crusaders' defense, but the bats remained relatively silent with only 5 hits com­pared to NWC's 16.

"I was disappointed that we didn't hit the ball well" despite facing a hard-throw­ing Crusaders' pitcher, the head coach said. "After the fourth inning, we were pretty much cooked."

Hitting fundamentals is something Dayton will focus on in practice in the run up to the state tournament in Yakima this weekend, said Robbins, who wants his players to get away from aiming at the fence and go­ing for singles to get the ball in play.

The # 4- seeded Lady Dogs face Orcas Island, seeded #2 and holding a 8-2 league record, at 11 am on Friday.