Astoria breaks the stalemate, routs St. Helens late for Class 4A softball state championship

Saturday’s Class 4A softball state championship game looked like it was going to be a grinding battle. But Astoria had some different plans in the later innings.

The Fishermen, in their state championship game debut, blew ahead late for a 7-0 win over top-ranked St. Helens at Jane Sanders Stadium for the state title.

Saturday was the fourth meeting between the two Cowapa League rivals. St. Helens won two of the preview three games.

“I think it’s really important to be able to represent, not only our area of Astoria but also St. Helens bringing more of the Cowapa League and us coming out on top I think that’s really cool,” said Astoria senior pitcher Maddie Wilkin.

Wilkin was one of the stars of the day for Astoria, pitching all seven innings for the Fishermen, allowing just two hits and walking three with nine strikeouts. But while Wilkin was anchoring the team in the circle, she was also fighting a different battle.

Preparing to send off potentially the final pitch of the game, facing a full count and two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning, Wilkin started wandering towards the visiting dugout and covered her face. She vomited on her way to the dugout and disappeared from the crowd for a couple of minutes before returning to the field.

It was the second time on Saturday that Wilkin vomited as she’s been battling an illness for a few days prior to the championship game.

But Wilkins did not let illness get in her way.

One pitch later, and she spiked her facemask in the dirt to celebrate the victory.

“Somebody had to do it,” Wilkin said of the final pitch. “I wanted it to be me.”

Following three and a half scoreless innings, St. Helens was threatening to open the game wide open in the bottom of the fourth. The Lions had the bases loaded with just one out, thanks to back-to-back fielding errors. But Astoria pitcher Maddie Wilkin struck out Andrea Brooks and got a pop out to left field against Michaela Dueck to end the inning unscathed.

“I have full confidence in myself and my fielders,” Wilkin said. “I know that if I throw strikes and if they make contact we can make something happen, so I wasn’t really worried that much.”

In the top of the sixth inning, Astoria was finally able to break open the stalemate. With the bases loaded and only one out, Wilkin hit a single out to shallow left field to score Nayomi Holmstedt. At the next at bat, Lyla Carlson smashed a double out to the left field fence to score Hailey Svensen, Aryana Adams and Maggie Falleur (who was pinch running for Wilkin) to make it a 4-0 lead for the Fishermen.

To add some insurance to their lead, the Fishermen got another run in the top of the seventh inning as Finley Cameron scored on a wild pitch. Then Kya Lindell scored on a sacrifice fly by Svensen. Adams then put the game to bed with a solo home run just over the left center field fence to make it a 7-0 lead.

Emeline Curaming pitched all seven innings for St. Helens, allowing nine hits and seven earned runs with just one walk and six strikeouts.

St. Helens hadn’t played in a softball state title game since 1999.

More Oregon high school sports

• Umpqua Valley Christian gets past Kennedy for Class 2A/1A baseball championship

• Grant Union/Prairie City makes it 3 in a row with Class 2A/1A softball championship win

• Scio finally gets its Class 3A softball title with win over Dayton

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Nik Streng

covers high school sports in Oregon. Reach him at

nstreng@oregonian.com

or

@NikStreng

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