BREAKING NEWS :

Here are the first round 3A pairings for the West Central District Tournament at Sprinker Recreation Center in Tacoma

Fri May 21^st @ Noon

Enumclaw (S/S #8) vs  Timberline (WCC #1)– Field 3

Camas  (SW#3) vs Bonney Lake (S/S) – Field 4

Union (SW #2) vs Pennisula (S/S #5) – Field 5

Olympic (Oly #2) vs Mt Rainier (S/S #2) -  Field 6

Fri May 21^st @ 2PM

Capital (WCC #2)  vs Kennedy Catholic (S/S #4) – Field 3

Lakes (S/S #7) vs Prairie (SW #1) – Field 4

Auburn-Mountainview (S/S #6) vs Port Angeles (Oly #1) – Field 5

Highline (S/S #9) vs Franklin Pierce (S/S #1) – Field 6

SPSL Fastpitch  Tournament

May 13 and 14^th

Service Club Fields in Kent

Round 1

Thursday, May 13 @ 4PM

Jefferson vs Emerald Ridge – Field #3 (Game 1)

Spanaway Lake vs Tahoma – Field #4 (Game 2)

Beamer vs Kentridge – Field #1 (Game 3)

AR/Kentwood vs Rogers – Field #2  (Game 4)

Round 2

Thursday, May 13 @ 6 PM

Jefferson/ER winner vs SL/Tahoma winner – Field #3 (Game 5)

Jefferson/ER loser vs SL/Tahoma loser – Field #4 (Game 7)

Beamer/Kentridge winner vs AR/KW/Rogers winner Field #2 (Game 6)

Beamer/Kentridge loser vs AR/KW/Rogers loser Field #1 (Game 8 )

A wild end to the regular season for the SPSL North but the tournament bracket is set except for the North #5 .  Kentlake and Tahoma ended tied and by virtue of a coin flip, Kentlake won the #1 seed into the tournament. Kentwood and Auburn-Riverside also ended tied, but because one of them will be eliminated from the tournament, a playoff game is required.   Here are the seeds:

North #1   Kentlake  15-1; 19-1

North #2   Tahoma 15-1; 18-2

North #3   Kentridge 11-5; 14-5

North #4   Thomas Jefferson 10-6; 12-7

North #5        Playoff Game is Tuesday 6PM at Brannon Park in Auburn

                        Kentwood  7-9; 9-11

                        Auburn-Riverside 7-9; 7-10

There are no ties in the South so the seeds ended up as:

South #1 Puyallup 15-1; 16-3

South #2 Rogers 12-4; 15-4

South #3 Emerald Ridge 10-6; 11-7

South #4 Todd Beamer 9-7; 11-8

South #5 Spanaway Lake 8-8; 9-8

The #1 seeds get a two game bye and are guaranteed a #5 seed into the District.  If rain holds off and the two-day tournament is played, any team can win their way into the final.  There will be some great ball played this Thursday and Friday at Service Club Fields.  See separate blog for game schedules.

SPSL North

With all the rainouts this past week there was not much chance for movement in the SPSL.  In a rain make-up on Tuesday Auburn-Riverside beat Auburn to knock Auburn out of playoff contention, despite Auburn’s win over Kentwood on Friday.  The Kentwood loss does not put them out of playoffs but they now need a win over (9-5) Kentridge or (10-3) Jefferson.  Their record stands at 6-8.  A win over either of these teams would give them the power point advantage over Auburn-Riverside who lost to both teams.

Auburn-Riverside has one game left against Federal Way and with a victory can end the season with a 7-9 league record.

Kentridge’s win over Federal Way on Friday secured a playoff spot for them, bringing their record to 9-5 with 2 games left to play.

SPSL South

Rogers (12-3) dropped yet another game, this time to (5-8) Bethel.  That loss secured Puyallup the SPSL South title with a 14-1 league record going into the last game against Rogers.

Despite their unexpected losses, Rogers has secured the 2^nd place position as the next lowest loss record stands at 6. 

Emerald Ridge, Beamer, Spanaway Lake, Curtis and Bethel all have opportunities to make playoffs.

Upcoming SPSL North Games:

Monday
   Kentlake @ Jefferson (4PM) make-up
   Kentridge @ Auburn (??) make-up

Tuesday
    Kentridge @ Kentwood (4PM)
    Auburn-Riverside @ FW (4PM)
    Tahoma @ Jefferson (4PM)
    Kentlake @ Auburn (3:30PM @ Game Farm)

Wednesday
   KM @Kentlake (4PM) make-up
   Jefferson @ Kentwood (4PM) make-up

The top five SPSL North and the top five SPSL South Teams come together in the SPSL tournament May 14 and 15 at Service Club Fields to determine seeding into the District tournament.  Going into the weekend there is a two-day bracket, and in case of rainy weather there is a one-day game schedule. 

Weather permitting; a two day bracket gives the number 1 teams from each division a two game bye and a guarantee of a 5^th seed or better.  A one day playoff would pit the first place teams together for #1 and #2 seed, the second place teams together for the #3 and #4 seed, and so on.

Before the teams are placed in the bracket, there must be sole possession of 1^st through 5^th place in each division.  Looking at the races right now, there will likely be ties. To resolve the ties, the league uses a hierarchy of tie breaker scenarios. For a two way tie, the first criterion is head to head.  If team A and B are tied, and team A beat team B in both of their meetings, then Team A is awarded the higher seed.  If Team A and Team B split their meetings, then the power point system is put in place.  The way that works is each team is rewarded points for wins.  The points for each win are based on the final placement of the teams.  So a win over the final 1^st place team awards you 9 points, and on down per the chart below.

 1st Place = 9 points

 2nd Place = 8 points

 3rd Place = 7 points

 4th Place = 6 points

 5th Place = 5 points

 6th Place = 4 points

 7th Place = 3 points

 8th Place = 2 points

 9th Place = 1 point

If after applying the power point system, the teams are still tied, a playoff game will be played.

For a tie of three or more, the hierarchy is head to head first, then power point and if still tied, a coin flip.  However, if the loss of the coin flip would eliminate a team from playoffs, a tie breaker game must be played in lieu of a coin flip.

The top 5 teams from the North and South SPSL will face each other in a seeding tournament May 14 and 15.  These 10 teams will then head into the West Central District tournament the following weekend to take on 6 teams from the Narrows league for 6 spots to state.   

The district bracket can be found at http://www.wcd3.org/SB_4A_Bracket_10.pdf

SPSL North

Who’s in: Kentlake, Tahoma and Jefferson

Who’s pretty much in: Kentridge

On the Bubble: Kentwood, Auburn-Riverside and Auburn

As the SPSL Regular season comes to a close, the race for playoffs heats up.  Tahoma, Kentlake and Jefferson have clinched spots and are playing for seeding into the SPSL playoffs.  Tahoma has games left against Federal Way, Kent-Meridian, Kentwood and Jefferson.  Kentlake has games left against Auburn, Auburn-Riverside, Kent-Meridian and Jefferson.    Jefferson, with the toughest road to a conference championship has games left against Kentlake, Kent-Meridian, Kentwood and Tahoma.  Jefferson not only has to win the rest of their games including beating league leaders Tahoma and Kentlake, they also need either Tahoma or Kentlake to lose another game for a chance at 1^st place. 

A tie is looming for 1^st place between Tahoma and Kentlake, although a falter by one team and not the other will lock in 1^st and 2^nd place.  See separate blog that explains the tie breaker rules.

Kentridge could still knock themselves out of a playoff spot, but only if they lose their last three games, and Auburn-Riverside wins all their games, which puts them in a tie for 5^th. Then they would have to lose a tie breaker against AR. On paper, Kentridge have the easiest remaining schedule with games against (4-8) Auburn,  (2-11) Federal Way and (6-6) Kentwood so look for them to clinch a spot early this week.

That leaves Kentwood, Auburn-Riverside and Auburn playing for the last spot into SPSL playoffs and Districts.   The fifth place team will need at least an 8-8 record.    At 6-6 the favorite appears to be Kentwood.  With games left against (11-1) Tahoma, (9-3) Jefferson, (4-8) Auburn and (8-5) Kentridge, they need to win at least two of them.  Auburn-Riverside (5-8) has games left against Kentlake, Auburn, and Federal Way.  They need to win all three to get to 8-8.  Auburn, with the toughest challenge to clinch a playoff spot has games left against Auburn-Riverside, Kentridge, Kentwood and Kentlake of which they need to win all of them. 

Games to watch this week:

Tuesday, April 27

Kentlake @ Jefferson  4PM
Tahoma @ Kentwood  4PM
A-R @ Auburn 3:30PM (loser will be knocked out of playoffs)

Wednesday, April 28

Jefferson @ Kentwood 4PM
Kentridge @ Auburn 4PM (Kentridge win would clinch a playoff spot)

Friday, April 30

Kentlake @ Auburn-Riverside 3:30PM (AR will need to win this one if they beat Auburn on Tues)
Kentwood @ Auburn 3:30PM  (If Auburn won on Tues, a loss here would knock them out, Kentwood needs this win if they lost to Tahoma and Jefferson earlier on the week)

Both of these games are at Game Farm Park in Auburn

Tuesday, May 4

Kentridge @ Kentwood 4PM
Tahoma @ Jefferson 4PM (this game will most likely determine 1^st,  2^nd and 3^rd, with the potential to create a tie for 1^st or  2^nd)

SPSL South

Who’s In:  Puyallup (11-1) and Rogers (10-2)

On the bubble: Emerald Ridge(6-5), Beamer (6-5), Spanaway Lake (4-5), Curtis (3-4) and Bethel (3-5)

Emerald Ridge and Beamer have already faced  Puyallup and Rogers twice, so their road to playoffs looks pretty good.  But they will need to win at least half of their remaining games to stay safe.

Curtis, Spanaway Lake and Bethel can’t lose more than 2 of their remaining games to stay safe.  With quite a few rain-outs in the south, there will be plenty of play this week and next.  It’s hard to tell who will go on a winning spree and who will falter. 

The big game in the South will be Tuesday, May 4 when Rogers takes on Puyallup at home under the lights.

 Narrows

The Narrows league is divided into two divisions, Bay and Bridge.  In their playoff tournament, the #1 team from each division play each other for the #1 and #2 seed into the District tournament and the #2 team from each division play each other for the #3 and #4 seed. The remaining 8 teams play a bracketed tournament for the final two spots.

Who’s in:  From the Bridge Division it looks like Stadium is in, however they have only played  4 division games.  They have a 4-0 Division Record and 9-1 Overall record. 

From the Bay Division, South Kitsap is holding strong with a 7-0 division record and a 9-2 overall record.  Wilson is in the same boat as Stadium as they have only played 4 division games.  They have a 3-1 division record and a 8-1 overall record.  Their only loss is to South Kitsap.

With the bracketed playoff system of the Narrows, that leaves everyone else on the bubble.

On Tuesday AM rain soaked the softball fields in Southeast King County and the pivotal games scheduled that day were postponed. So with better weather in store, the Tahoma v Jefferson game will be played today.  The bad news… Tahoma went 9 innings yesterday against a newly revitalized Kentridge squad.

The game was scoreless going into the 9^th inning when the International Tie Breaker rule goes into effect.  At the top of the ninth inning, Tahoma placed their last batter from the previous inning on 2^nd base.  She was sacrificed over to third and then squeezed home.  Tahoma up  1- 0, 1 out.  The bases were then loaded.  With 1 out, Shelby Carter hit a sacrifice fly ball to the outfield scored the second run.  Tahoma up 2 – 0. 

In the bottom of the inning, Kentridge placed their runner on 2^nd and successfully sacrificed her home.  Kentridge then loaded the bases and with 2 outs Nicole Barger hit a line drive, but unfortunately for her, right at 2^nd base, game over.

So, after less than 24 hours, Tahoma has to take the field again today against 9 – 2 Jefferson, who played Auburn-Riverside to a 12-4 win yesterday.

There are still a couple of first half games to be made up:  Auburn has yet to play Auburn-Riverside and Kentlake.  The Auburn v. Kentlake game is rescheduled to Monday, April 19^th at 7PM.  No word on the Auburn v. Auburn-Riverside, but the guess is that it is being played today.  Also there are no game results for Auburn-Riverside v. Federal Way or Kent-Meridian.  Either the games were never played, or never reported.   Those games should be easy wins for Auburn-Riverside, but Federal Way is starting to play teams much closer as they only lost to Kentwood 3 – 1 yesterday. 

Tomorrow Kentlake has to face Kentridge, 7PM at Kentlake.  Look for that to be a good game.

Tahoma has a Friday bye and Kentwood takes on Auburn-Riverside, which is an important game for the playoff race as both teams are working hard for the 5^th and final spot.  Last time they met, Auburn-Riverside won 7-6.

Week 1 ended with the opening of SPSL play. Here are the results

Kentwood 8
Auburn 6

Junior Jayme Nies got the win for Kentwood while Junior Nicole Kelsoe suffered the loss.

On offense,  Senior CJ Brooks went 1 for 2 with an RBI, Freshman Allison Newcomb went 2 for 2 with 2 runs scored and 2 RBI.  Sophomore Bethany Pfaff went 2 for 3 with a run scored and Jayme Nies helped her cause with 1 hit and 2 RBI.

Tahoma 10
Kent-Meridian 0

(See article in Maple Valley Reporter for highlights)

Kentridge 7
Federal Way 0

D. Orvella got the win for Kentridge and Alexis Pawlowski got the loss.

On offense D. Orvella went 2 for 4, hitting a double and scoring a run.  N Stadafora went 2 for 4, also hitting a double and scoring 2 runs.

Kentlake 8
Auburn-Riverside 1

Senior Nikole Weber got the win over Auburn-Riverside throwing 7 innings, striking out 5 and walking only 1.  Weber only allowed 3 hits. Alyssia Jarmin got the loss for Auburn Riverside.

After shutting down A-R in the top of the 1^st, Kentlake’s offense went to work.  Junior Erin Crowley led off the inning with a double.  Junior Erika Smyth followed with a single that moved Crowley to third.  Junior Jessie Richardson then laid down a sacrifice squeeze bunt to score Crowley.  Senior Brook Evans walked to load bases and Junior Brittany Styger walked to score Smyth.   Freshman Kelly Nielsen drove a fly ball into shallow center to score Richardson .  Sophomore Alexis Engman scored Evans on a single up the middle.

On the night, Engman led the offense going 3 for 3 with a triple.  Evans went 1 for 3(double) but capitalized on A-R errors to reach base and score 3 runs.  Richardson went 2 for 3 with 3 runs scored, a RBI and a stolen base.

A-R’s lone unearned run was in the top of the 7^th when Hannah Melnick (Oregon) reached base on a walk and moved to 2^nd on an error.  She was then sacrificed home on a deep fly ball by Brinna Tsujikawg.

SPSL Standings after Week 1

Kentwood, Kentlake , Kentridge and Tahoma are all at 1 -0

Kent-Meridian, Federal Way, Auburn and Auburn-Riverside are 0-1

T.J had a bye

Week 2 at a glance

There are some great match-ups in Week 2 of the SPSL schedule.  By the end of the week we should know better which teams will be the contenders.

Tuesday

The games to watch on Tuesday are Tahoma at Auburn-Riverside and  TJ  at Auburn both at Game Farm park in Auburn at 3:30 PM. 

Other matchups include Kentwood at Federal Way and Kent-Meridian is at Kentridge.

Kentlake has a bye but is hosting Graham-Kapowsin in a non conference game at 7PM.

Wednesday

The two games to watch on Wednesday are Kentlake at Tahoma and Kentridge at Auburn-Riverside.  Both are 4PM starts.

Kentwood will be hosting Kent-Meridian at 4PM.

Friday

The games to watch may change after the results of Tuesday and Wednesday, but for now they should be Kentlake at Kentridge and Kentwood at Auburn-Riverside.

Tahoma has a bye .

This year the WIAA has adopted the early implementation of the 43 ft pitching distance.  The rule will go into effect for all high schools playing under the National Federation of State High School Associations fastpitch rules next year.  The previous pitching distance was set at 40 feet at the high school level.

What does this mean for the upcoming season?  High school teams who are fortunate to have pitchers that have already been pitching at the 43 feet distance in travel ball will definitely have the edge.  Not to say the others can’t catch up, but they will need to throw some games to get adjusted to the new distance. 

The pitchers who master their breaking balls at 43 feet will have the edge.  The hitters who have been hitting at 43 feet will also have a better eye for the late breaking pitches.

This year, the Kentlake HS Fastpich team will be playing all their home games under the lights.  Kentlake plays on the lighted King County fields adjacent to the school.  In years past, Kentlake has scheduled a few night games, but this year has scheduled all home varsity games and a select number of JV games under the lights. 

While it will most definitely be colder in the early spring, the night games should attract more fans to the games.

Scheduled start time for the night games is 7PM.