Tigard, despite losing to Raleigh Hills, keeps its spirits high

PORTLAND — Sometimes, the score just doesn’t really matter.

There can be more important things. Really.

Things such and playing hard, having fun and keeping your spirits high.

That all looks to be true — just ask the Tigard Little League Majors (ages 11-12) all-star softball team.

The girls on the Tigard squad, despite falling 37-0 to Raleigh Hills Tuesday in a District 4 Tournament pool play game held at Alpenrose Dairy, kept their heads up, kept battling and kept cheering load — really loud.

“We had a lot of fun,” Tigard’s Molly Marie Shields said following Tuesday’s game. “Once it got to be 20-0, we knew we weren’t going to win, so we were just going to have fun.”

“It doesn’t matter if we win, we want to have fun,” Tigard’s Casey Jane Kuest said.

“We’d like to win,” Shields quickly added. “It would be nice to win, but having fun is the most important thing.”

Tigard, which went 1-2 in pool play competition at the district tourney, was scheduled to face Raleigh Hills again on Wednesday in a district tournament semifinal game. Results of that game weren’t available when The Times went to press.

“We’ve got them right in our trap,” Tigard manager Richard Lundstrom and his assistant coaches joked about Wednesday’s rematch with Raleigh Hills.

The winner of Wednesday’s tourney semifinal game will meet Tualatin City tonight (Thursday) in the tournament championship game, set to start at 6 p.m. at Alpenrose Dairy.

In Tuesday’s pool play contest, Tigard found itself facing a daunting deficit right from the start, as Raleigh Hills scored 13 runs in the top of the first inning. Kimaia Gassner had a pair of inside-the-park home runs in the opening frame for Raleigh Hills.

The deficit grew in the second inning, as Raleigh Hills scored 16 runs in the frame to increase its lead to 29-0.

But Tigard kept on battling.

Taylor Rothstein had Tigard’s first hit of the game, coming on a high, arcing fly ball to center field with one out in the second inning.

In the third inning, Tigard’s Zoey Crenshaw walked on a 3-2 pitch with one out in the frame, and she proceeded to steal second base.

In the fourth inning, Tigard’s Michelle Dickey ripped a ground ball up the middle for another Tigard hit.

On defense, Tigard got solid plays from Shields at third base, from Sarah Greenberg at second base, and from Melia Nordberg at shortstop, among others.

“Raleigh Hills is a good team,” Lundstrom said. “But our girls did some good things. They swung the bats and made some good plays. It was fun.”

Fun.

That seems to be a big deal to the Tigard team.

“We like to have a lot of fun,” Malia Lundstrom said with a smile.

“We pump it up,” Kuest said. “We still want to be loud. I really like the team, and the coaches are all real nice.”

For Raleigh Hills in Tuesday’s game, Gassner went 5 for 6 at the plate with a double, two triples and two home runs. She scored six runs and had 11 RBIs.

Tigard opened the tournament last Thursday with a 14-4 loss to Tualatin City.

For Tigard in that game, Kynzey Mitzel scored a pair of runs while Nordberg and Dickey had one run apiece. Mitzel, Nordberg, McKenna Yoder and Malia Lundstrom each had one hit. Mitzel, Nordberg and Rothstein each had an RBI.

Tigard received a forfeit victory over Willow Creek on Monday.

Kiley Merx also plays for the Tigard squad. The team’s assistant coaches are Jeff Kuest and Larry Shields.