The Kayhi Lady Kings softball team defeated the Thunder Mountain Falcons 7-3 on Friday at Dudley Field to claim the title of Region V champions and earn the Southeast region’s second and final state playoff berth.
It’s the Lady Kings’ second region title in a row, and their third state appearance in a row since 2018 (no season in 2020).
Kayhi continued their recent trend of scoring first by jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. Sophomore Taylor Jackson started the scoring by hitting a ground ball double to left field. That scored senior Shaelyn Mendoza, who had reached base on an error two batters earlier. Kayhi’s next batter was senior Mackenzie Pahang, who hit an RBI double to center field which brought Jackson home. Senior Haley Gilson then stepped to the plate and hit an RBI single to center field, which scored Pahang.
Thunder Mountain responded in the top of the fourth with a two-run home run to center field from sophomore Ashlyn Gates, making the score 3-2.
The Lady Kings added another run in the bottom of the fourth when senior Paige Boehlert grounded out to second base, scoring sophomore Marley Lewis, who had reached base on a walk.
The Falcons plated their final run of the contest when senior Rileyanna Payne hit a sacrifice fly to left field, which scored sophomore Jenna Dobson and brought Thunder Mountain back within one.
Kayhi added three insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to put the game out of reach. The first run came when Shaelyn Mendoza reached on a fly ball error by the Thunder Mountain second baseman, which allowed senior Gabby Mas to score. Jackson reached base via walk as the following batter, and both Mendoza and Jackson came around to score on a subsequent triple from Pahang.
Pahang pitched a complete game for Kayhi, allowing three runs — one of which was earned — and striking out five batters while giving up one walk.
After the game, Mendoza praised Pahang’s pitching and Kayhi’s hot start on offense. Mendoza also explained that her team’s energy throughout the tournament was a big part of their success.
“Going into the tournament we were really hyped,” Mendoza said. “We got excited early in that first game and I think that energy has carried on to this last game, which also really helped.”
The senior shortstop likes her team’s chances at state, but knows they have to play clean games in order to be successful.
“I think [our chances] are pretty good,” Mendoza said. “My freshman year we had a really good chance, and last year, but we choked and made some mistakes that I’m hoping we don’t make again. But if we do everything right and keep our energy then we should do good.”
Kayhi head coach Kalea Allen shared that her team’s No. 3 seed status going into the region tournament helped motivate them.
“I think knowing that state wasn’t a given, you had to really earn it and work a little bit harder for it, was a good thing for us,” Allen said. “It’s been that way in the past where you already know you’re going to state, so it’s almost like you don’t have to come out 100%, and we saw other teams in our regions kind of come out that way in this tournament and then have to fight back. So I liked that it wasn’t a given right away and that we had to work for it and that the girls learned how to play postseason ball. … I think that we’re learning how to put things together when they need to be, in order to continue playing in the postseason.”
Allen named North Pole, along with Kodiak and Delta Junction, as teams on Kayhi’s radar going into the state tournament. She specified that the North Pole likely will be Kayhi’s biggest challenge, and also shared that her team had already seen North Pole in an early-season tournament in Anchorage, and that they will revisit games from that tournament to prepare for state.
“We went to a tournament in Anchorage earlier this year, which was really nice because we did see and play those teams that we would see at state, should we get there,” Allen said. “Now that we have, we can go back and look at those games. We do expect to see North Pole, we saw them up there last year. Homer, Kodiak and Delta Junction [are all teams] we’ve seen in the past, those are some of the main ones but I think the team at the forefront of that group is North Pole. We saw them early this season, we didn’t play the best against them but we definitely know what to expect going in, so that definitely helps us prepare better.”
The ASAA/First National Bank Alaska Softball State Championships is scheduled for June 2-4 in Fairbanks.
*This article was originally published in the Ketchikan Daily News*
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