by Trevor Pyle
Burlington-Edison pitcher LIndsey Dawson (left) reaches to tag out Pullman’s Amy Sterk out at home on Friday.
SELAH — Last year, Lindsey Dawson and the Burlington-Edison softball team got all the way to the championship game of the Class 2A State Tournament.
After the first day of the 2009 tournament, Dawson and the Tigers still have an opportunity to equal that achievement — or better it.
Dawson threw back-to-back two hitters, and the Tigers played thrilling defense behind her as Burlington-Edison beat W.F. West 5-0 and Pullman 1-0 to reach the semifinals.
The Tigers will play Tumwater at 10 a.m. today, and a win would send them to the state finals for the second straight year.
Anacortes fell in its first game 5-4 to North Mason in eight innings, but bounced back with two wins and are in contention for third place. The Seahawks will also play at 10 a.m.
Dawson, last year’s Skagit Valley Herald Player of the Year, threw a gem in each game for the Tigers, holding the Bearcats and Greyhounds to two hits apiece.
“She’s a gamer. She came out with the mindset, ‘I’m going to do this,’ and she did it,” Burlington-Edison coach Darcy Taylor said. “She beared down when she needed to and her defense played great behind her.”
Dawson was 2-for-4 with a double in the first game, Jessica Tingley was 2-for-3 and Jasmine Rigelman was 3-for-4 as the Tigers won their opening-round game.
Their second game was closer, with Pullman starter Erika Hanson throwing a gem of her own (seven innings pitched, six hits, no earned runs, 14 strikeouts).
But Burlington-Edison’s Rachelle Berry led off the third inning and later scored the game’s lone run when Rigelman hit a tricky ball into the infield that turned into an error.
Dawson struck out six and yielded only a pair of singles. She also took advantage of several defensive plays from her fellow Tigers.
In the fourth inning, a pitch got past catcher Jessica Tingley and the runner on third, Pullman third baseman Amy Sterk, bolted for home.
But Tingley lunged for the ball and tossed it back to Dawson for the out.
In the fifth, the Tigers turned a key double play, catching a Pullman runner off second after she advanced their on a sacrifice bunt.
“We don’t always (field) a lot of balls, but when we do, they’re huge,” Taylor said of the Tigers (20-6).
Berry, who as the first baseman had a hand in the double play said, “The balls bounced in our favor, and everyone made their plays. Everything came together.”
Everything didn’t come together for Anacortes in the Seahawks’ first game.
Down 4-1, the came back to tie it before the Bulldogs won it in the eighth on a sacrifice fly struck by infielder Jennifer Hupper.
But the Seahawks managed to bounce back nicely despite wilting heat at Carlon Park in Selah. They came back from a 5-3 deficit in their game against Centralia to win 8-5, then shut out Granite Falls 3-0 to stay alive.
Madison Bundy was 2-for-3 with a triple, Sara Brennan had a two-run single and Kayla Rieger hit a two-run double against Centralia. Against Granite Falls, catcher Maria Roney hit a run-scoring double and Hannah Brennan added a run-scoring single.
Megan Dunton turned in a tenacious performance, pitching 18 total innings; Roney caught every inning.
“Megan dazzles with slow, slower and slowest — and the occasional fastball,” Anacortes coach Tom Swapp said to describe her off-speed style.
He said Roney’s tough play helps make her and Dunton a good pair.
“That allows Megan to work low, because she blocks everything,” he said of the Seahawks’ stalwart at backstop.
He said Sara Brennan (at third) and Madison Bundy (at second) played especially tough defense on Friday, with Bundy ranging far to her left and into the outfield in the second game to make a tough catch.
Later, she stopped a hard-hit ball and shoveled it to second base for a key defensive play.
• Trevor Pyle can be reached at 360-416-2156 or by e-mail at .
