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Pirates are back-to-back state champs
The Prairie Lady Pirates made it two straight state championships in softball as they held off Genesee in the championship game 8-6 Saturday, May 17 at Caldwell. They had beaten Horseshoe Bend 8-7 on Friday and then beat Genesee 13-6 to advance to the championship game. 
The next batter hit a ball over the fence in right field but Prairie noticed she missed third base on her trip around the bases. On an appeal play she was called out and all three runs were disallowed because the umpires said that was a force play and no runs can score when the third out is made on a force play. That got Prairie out of the first inning with no runs given up. Prairie then came up and Tiffany Schaeffer and Kara Guyer both walked to start the game. Brooke Holthaus then singled up the middle to score Schaeffer with Guyer moving to third. Alli Holthaus walked and the ball got away on ball four allowing Guyer to score and make it 2-0. Prairie extended the lead to 5-0 in the bottom of the third inning. Alli Holthaus hit a ground rule double to left and Kim Schaeffer followed with a bloop single to left. Leora Laurino then doubled to left to score both runners. Laurino then came in to score on consecutive passed balls. Horseshoe Bend got on the board in the top of the fourth with a 2-out rally. Two singles were followed by a 2-run double to cut the lead to 5-2. Hilaree VanderPas led off the bottom of the inning with a home run to left to make it 6-2. In the top of the sixth the Mustangs put together a rally helped in large part by some sloppy defense by the Pirates. 2 singles, a walk and 3 errors in the inning allowed the Mustangs to score 4 runs and tie the score at 6-6. Prairie answered right back in the bottom of the inning as Guyer led off with a double to fence in center. She scored on Brooke Holthaus’ single to left and courtesy runner Amber Holthaus scored on Alli Holthaus’ third straight double, this one down the left field line. Horseshoe Bend got a leadoff walk in the seventh and pitcher Sam Frei hit this next batter. A wild pitch moved both runners up. The next batter then grounded to third and Guyer threw out the runner from third trying to score. Another grounder to third followed with Guyer going to first this time as the run scored to cut the lead to 8-7. Prairie then ended the game as Laurino caught a fly ball to left for the third out. Prairie had 10 hits in the game with Alli Holthaus collecting 3 doubles and an RBI. Brooke Holthaus had 2 singles and 2 RBI while Guyer had a double and a single, VanderPas a homer, Laurino a double and Kim Schaeffer a single. Frei gave up 7 runs on 10 hits with 2 walks and 2 hit batters. She had 3 strikeouts. HB 0 0 0 2 0 4 1—7 10 1 Prairie 2 0 3 1 0 2 x—8 10 3 Frei had trouble finding the plate in the first inning as she walked Genesee’s first hitter on 4 pitches. She then got herself into further trouble with an error and another walk that loaded the bases. A wild pitch allowed a run to score and a walk reloaded the bases.  Frei
struck out the next two hitters then hit a batter to bring in a second
run before she got out of the inning.
Prairie was able to come right back though against Genesee’s Cyd Blevins. Tiffany Schaeffer led off with a bloop single just past the shortstop. After an out VanderPas grounded to second but an error left both runners safe. Brooke Holthaus then grounded to third but the third baseman threw wide of first allowing Tiffany to score and VanderPas to move up. Alli Holthaus hit a sacrifice fly to right to score VanderPas and Kim Schaeffer singled home Amber Holthaus, who was running from Brooke, to give Prairie a 3-2 lead. Prairie added 2 more runs in the second with a 2-out rally. Rachel Kaschmitter led off the inning with a single but was forced out at second by Alena Hoene. After Tiffany Schaeffer flew out to center Prairie put together 3 straight hits. Guyer singled up the middle and Vanderpas did the same to score Hoene. Brooke Holthaus then dropped a single in front of the centerfielder to score Guyer and make it 5-2. Genesee’s catcher manufactured a run in the third inning as she reached on a force play, stole second and third and scored on a bad pickoff throw. At this point Genesee had 3 runs but had yet to record a hit. Prairie added a run in the fourth when VanderPas walked with 1 out. Haleigh Schmidt went in to pinchrun and moved to second on a single by Brooke Holthaus. After a second out was made, Kim Schaeffer singled past the third baseman to score Schmidt to make it 6-3. Prairie added another run in the fifth, that maybe shouldn’t have scored. Hoene singled with 1 out and Tiffany Schaeffer followed with a single to left. Guyer then singled up the middle but the ball hit Hoene taking off from second. Normally if a batted ball hits a runner the runner is out and the ball is dead unless it’s past the fielders then it’s play-on. Hoene and Schaeffer both wound up scoring on the play as Guyer’s hit got away from the centerfielder. After a conference the umpires decided to call Hoene out but let Schaeffer’s run count, apparently trying to have it both ways on the ruling. Whatever, the score was now 7-3 in Prairie’s favor. 
Genesee put together a scoring rally in the top of the sixth. They had finally picked up their first hit in the fourth and had added another in the fifth. In the sixth they got back-to-back hits from the first two hitters and a hit batter loaded the bases. A grounder to third led to a forceout at home but two wild pitches led to a pair of runs. After a walk, Genesee pulled off a delayed double steal to score another run and trim the lead to 7-6 before Frei got out of the inning with a pair of fly balls, one to short and the other to center. With their lead down to 1 Prairie responded with a big inning. Brooke Holthaus led off the sixth with her third straight hit. Alli Holthaus followed with a grounder to third but an error left both runners safe. A single by Kim Schaeffer loaded the bases with nobody out. Laurino then walked to force in Amber Holthaus, who was running for Brooke. Kaschmitter then grounded to short but a throwing error allowed Alli Holthaus to scored. After an out, Tiffany Schaeffer hit what appeared to be at least a double down the left field line but the umpire called it foul (because it went foul after it landed in fair territory?). She then singled to score Kim. After a pickoff play made the second out, Guyer singled up the middle to scored Kaschmitter and Tiffany Schaeffer scored when the ball got past the centerfielder for an error. VanderPas was intentionally walked but ball four was really wide and Guyer came in to score on the wild pitch to make it 13-6. In the top of the seventh Frei walked the lead off hitter but then got 3 straight outs, the final one on a called third strike, to end the game and put Prairie in control of the tournament. Frei had allowed just 4 hits, all singles, to Genesee, and had 8 strikeouts. She got herself into trouble with 6 walks and 2 hit batters. The control problems were likely due as much to her pitching 14 innings in one day for the first time all season and the heat. Prairie had 17 hits led by Brooke Holthaus who had 4 singles. Guyer and Tiffany and Kim Schaeffer had 3 singles each while VanderPas, Laurino, Kaschmitter and Hoene each had a single. Genesee 2 0 1 0 0 3 0— 6 4 7 Prairie 3 2 0 1 1 6 x—13 17 2 Prairie pitcher Frei allowed just 2 hits but 1 hit batter and 3 walks helped Genesee to score 3 runs. They might’ve scored more but left the bases loaded as Frei ended the inning with a strikeout.  Prairie
answered back with Tiffany Schaeffer and Guyer each singling to start the
game. VanderPas hit a sacrifice fly to right to score Schaeffer and an
error on the throw to third to try and catch Guyer, resulted in Guyer scoring
also to cut the lead to 2-3.
Both sides went out in order in the second inning but Genesee added a run in the third on a leadoff ground rule double, stolen base and groundout to score the run. Hoene led off the third for Prairie with a single to right but couldn’t advance past second. In the third Prairie put a rally together to tie the score. Brooke Holthaus led off with a single up the middle and after an out Kim Schaeffer battled for a walk. A wild pitch advanced the runners and Amber Holthaus scored when Laurino grounded out to second. Schaeffer scored the tying run when Kaschmitter’s ground ball went between the third baseman’s legs into left field for an error. Prairie then took their first lead in the fifth. Guyer hit a one out single and VanderPas and Brooke Holthaus each doubled. Guyer was thrown out at the plate on VanderPas’ double but Haleigh Schmidt, running for VanderPas, scored the go-ahead run on Brooke’s double. Amber Holthaus, running from Brooke, then scored when Alli Holthaus singled up the middle. Kim Schaeffer singled and Laurino walked to load the bases. Kaschmitter then blooped a single to left to score Alli to make it 7-4. Genesee threatened to score in both the fifth and sixth innings but Prairie’s defense got them out of the inning. In the fifth Frei walked two batters an hit another but two fly ball outs plus a pickoff at third got Prairie out of the inning without a run scoring. In the sixth Frei walked the first two hitters but then induced a ground ball to Guyer who went to the bag to force the runner there. The next batter then hit a line shot right to Guyer who caught the ball and then threw over to first to double off the runner there and end the inning. Prairie added an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth as Guyer beat out an infield single and then scored on a single by Alli Holthaus. Genesee rallied in the top of the seventh with 3 singles that plated a pair of runs and brought the tying run to the plate. Consecutive groundouts to Kaschmitter ended the game with Prairie winning their second straight state title. Prairie had 12 hits in the game with Guyer collecting 3 singles. Brooke Holthaus had a double and a single. Alli Holthaus had a pair of RBI singles while VanderPas had a double and Tiffany Schaeffer, Kim Schaeffer, Kaschmitter and Hoene each had a single. Brooke was 8 for 13 in the tournament for a .615 average while Guyer was 8 for 14 for .571 and Alli Holthaus was 5 for 9 for a .556 average. Kim Schaeffer was 5 for 10, .500. Tiffany Schaeffer was 4 for 10, .400. Frei allowed Genesee 7 hits in the championship game and had 4 strikeouts. She gave up 7 walks and hit 4 batters. She pitched all 21 innings of the tournament for the Pirates. Prairie ends the season with a 24-2 record. Genesee 3 0 1 0 0 0 2—6 7 2 Prairie 2 0 0 2 3 1 x—8 12 1 
The happy team with the state championship trophy. Back from left are coach Travis Mader, Leora Laurino, Kara Guyer, Camille Schumacher, Brooke Holthaus, Tiffany Schaeffer, Alli Holthaus, Kim Schaeffer, Hilaree VanderPas, Rachel Kaschmitter, Justina Mader and coach Steve Wilson. Front from left are Sam Spencer, Sheri Schumacher, Haleigh Schmidt, Alena Hoene, Kendra Dinning, Meghan Bruner, Sam Frei and Amber Holthaus.
Prairie Girls Softball 2008 schedule March 7-At Orofino Tournament-vs. St. Maries, won 11-7; vs. Orofino, won 7-6 8-At Orofino Tournament, due to weather delays, didn't play 11-at Culdesac, won 15-1 13-at Lapwai, rained out. rescheduled to April 22 as part of doubleheader 17-at Kamiah, won 24-0 18-vs. Timberline at Sunset Park in Lewiston (2 games), won 17-1, 12-0 19-at Orofino, 4:30 p.m., won 11-10 April 1-vs. Potlatch at Lewiston, 4 p.m. won 13-10 3-Lewis County at Airport Park in Lewiston won 17-7 8-at Kendrick, 2 games won 21-1 and 17-5. 14-Grangeville here, cancelled due to weather 15-Culdesac here, won 7-6 17-Kamiah here, won 15-2 19-Troy, 2 games, won 14-1, 24-10 21-at Grangeville, cancelled due to weather 22-Lapwai here (2), forfeited by Lapwai, not enough players eligible 24-vs. Genesee at Airport Park, Lewiston, lost 13-17, 3-18 28-at Lewis County, won 16-5 May 3, 5, 7-District at Prairie Beat L.C. 8-4, beat Troy 17-2, beat Genesee 13-0 to win district title. 16-17-State at Caldwell Beat Horseshoe Bend 8-7, Beat Genesee 13-6, beat Genesee 8-6 in championship game, 23-2 and State Champs!! |
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