EUGENE – In getting outscored by 25 runs in a doubleheader at Grant Union in mid-May, the Heppner/Ione softball team didn't resemble anything close to a state-title contender.
As it turned out, though, that day became just the impetus the Mustangs needed to propel them to the state championship.
No. 4-seeded Heppner/Ione roared into the final with five consecutive wins, then added the exclamation point Friday with an emphatic 16-4, six-inning victory over No. 3 Regis in the OSAA/OnPoint Community Credit Union 2A/1A championship game at the University of Oregon.
“We had been playing progressively worse before that,” senior first baseman Sarah Estes said of the doubleheader losses. “After that game, we realized that we were in it. That did not define us. We realized that we were better than that, and we could come back, and we truly did.”
Heppner coach Petra Payne recalled how Grant Union “smacked us around.”
“I don't think we got off the bus that day,” Payne said. “We were a little complacent. I do think that made the girls want it a little bit more. I think it was a little bit of a shock. It made us refocus. Practices got a lot more structured.”
The Mustangs (20-5) rapped 15 hits and took advantage of seven errors to down the Rams (28-4).They opened a 5-0 lead with five runs in the third inning and blew the game open with an 11-run sixth inning, making it 16-0.
Estes, the Special District 7 player of the year, went 3 for 5 with a double and four RBIs and sophomore third baseman CiCi Stefani went 2 for 3 with a triple and five RBIs. Senior shortstop Delaney Stefani (3 for 5), freshman second baseman Khloe Rodriguez (2 for 4, two RBIs) and sophomore catcher Isa Payne (2 for 4, RBI) also had big days.
Heppner knew it needed to keep piling up runs against Regis, which entered the game with a state-record 435 runs this season.
“I know what they can do. They put up a lot of runs,” Payne said of the Rams. “So I wasn't really comfortable with the five.”
Junior pitcher Maya Payne, backed by outstanding defense, held the explosive Regis lineup scoreless through five innings before yielding four runs in the bottom of the sixth. For the game, she allowed seven hits, three earned runs, walked two and struck out one.
“Maya pitched an amazing game,” Estes said. “I don't think she's pitched a better game than that.”
The defense came through in a big way. The Mustangs turned two double plays and junior center fielder Avree Lathrop made the play of the day, a diving catch on a sinking liner.
Heppner held Regis to its lowest run total against an Oregon team all season. The Rams were averaging 14.9 runs per game.
“We game-planned it, and I have a really good defense to back me up,” Maya Payne said. “That's really all it takes.”
The Mustangs played with high energy from the opening pitch.
“The beginning of the year, we never really seemed to be super excited about anything,” Estes said. “We'd have great games, but the energy was never there. Since the playoffs, you could not put a cap on us. We just exploded.
“It really showed today. I've never seen us play that well. This is what we waited for.”
It is the second state title for Heppner, the other coming in 2012. Four players from that championship team made the trip to watch the game Friday, and the Mustangs didn't let them down.
“It's been an on-and-off year, but today we put it together,” said Petra Payne, who played on the school's first team in 1998. “All of them, one through nine, put the ball in play.”
It was a far cry from that Grant Union doubleheader.
“I think we kind of fell asleep for a little bit, and that was kind of the peak of that,” Maya Payne said. “But after those two losses, we really cleaned it up. Just like a fresh start.”
Senior Hadley Foster hit a two-run double and freshman Peyton Welch had an RB single for Regis. The Rams fell short in going for their first title since 2011.
jerryu@osaa.org
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