The Chokers went 1-3 on the weekend as they battled 4 teams from the East Region in Kennewick, WA.

Grays Harbor matched up with Blue Mountain Community College in the first game of the tournament, which put them up against a squad that the Chokers took down in this same tournament last year on a walk off double in the bottom of the 7th inning by our very own Alexis Cudaback, scoring the winning run from first base! While it wasn't a walk off this time around, Cudaback did account for 2 RBI's in the game to help the Chokers in route to an 11-5 victory.  The whole lineup contributed to this win with Carron Blood, Madison Erickson, Ciara Mennitto, Kassidy Byrd and Desiree Becherer all accounting for multiple hits, including Becherer notching her 2nd homerun of the season.  Byrd also threw all 7 innings in route to her 4th win in the circle.

The second match up found the Chokers up against a tough Yakima Valley squad who accounted for the Chokers first loss of the season, falling to the Yaks 1-9 after 5 innings.  There wasn't much happening in this game offensively as the Chokers usually tough offensive lineup struggled to find the bats, accounting for only 4 hits in the game, 2 of them coming from Blood, who also scored the only Choker run thanks to an RBI double by Becherer.

The third game of the tournament had Grays Harbor playing Columbia Basin College in the early morning on Sunday.  The Chokers knew this was going to be the toughest test of the year so far with CBC being the dominant team at the top of the East region.  The game really came down to one inning in which CBC refused to get out and the Chokers did everything they could, but the hurt was put on them in the bottom of the 4th inning.  Coach Jake White tried 3 different pitchers during the inning but the hot bats of CBC ended up plating 14 runs before the damage was over ultimately taking down the Chokers 4-17.  Speaking with Coach White after the game he said, "We really didn't play bad.  We needed to be more aggressive at the plate and jump on first pitch strikes.  We had multiple players watch 2 strikes go by and then chase something off speed or out of the zone.  Defensively, we had some rotational miscues but most of that tough inning was homeruns that on a field with 20 mph winds blowing straight out, all you have to do is put barrel to ball and watch it fly.  I'll be excited to take them on again on a day that the wind isn't blowing the ball an extra 50 feet."  Erickson led the way in this one with another multi-hit game.

Game 4 of the long weekend on the other side of the mountains set the Chokers up against Wenatchee Valley College who finished 4th last year in the NWAC Championships and brought back 9 sophomores for this season.  This game was another game of putting the ball up in the wind and letting it fly.  The Chokers started off hot right out of the gate sitting down the Knights in order and then scoring 4 runs starting with Mariah Villalba crushing a line drive over the left field fence for her first ever career homerun, putting the Chokers up 1-0.  The inning didn't end there though, as Blood lined a hard single up the middle and Erickson and Mennitto went back to back bombs putting the Chokers on top 4-0 after the 1st inning.  Next inning same story.  Becherer starting things off with a single and reached 2nd on an error, Villalba singled, scoring Becherer, Blood walked, Erickson singled, scoring Villalba and Mennitto homered scoring everyone for her 2nd homerun of the game in as many innings.  Unfortunately for the Chokers, that's where the scoring stopped for them and it began for the Knights.  The Chokers were blanked the next 4 innings while the Knights took their turn rounding the bases, hitting 6 homeruns and scoring 18 runs in those 4 innings.  "Our team didn't play bad at all.  There's some things we need to work on, but ultimately in the two games today, there was 17 homeruns hit on this field.  That isn't normal and was a product of the wind.  Now, we did have the same chances to put balls up in the jet stream and we failed to do so, but in a good way!" Coach White had to say after the loss.  What he was referring to was that the 13 homeruns hit by WVC and CBC combined, maybe 3 or 4 actually get out on a normal day.  While the Chokers didn't score the rest of the WVC game, in back to back innings they led off with a hitter reaching first base safely and then a laced line drive right at the 3rd baseman who snapped it off and doubled up the runner on first.  That is just unlucky.  Coach White was impressed with the Chokers hitting in the difference between the CBC game and the WVC games.  It just goes to show that this Grays Harbor team is adjusting game by game and is getting better every day!  Villalba, Blood, Erickson and Mennitto all had multiple hits for the Chokers.

After the conclusion of the pre-season, the Chokers are a top 6 team in almost every category in the NWAC and are making a mark this season and turning some heads!  

The Chokers who are 7-3 overall, look to take on Umpqua Friday 3/14 and SWOCC Saturday 3/15 at home both days if the weather allows!