CHEYENNE — Rock Springs kept its season alive Friday at the Wyoming 4A State Softball Tournament.
The Lady Tigers went 2-1 during day two of the tournament, opening with their first loss of at state before responding with back-to-back elimination-game victories to advance to Saturday’s semifinals. Rock Springs has now won three elimination games between regionals and state, doing so by an average margin of six runs.
Game 1: Cheyenne East
Rock Springs began the day against Cheyenne East in the quarterfinals, falling 8-3 in a game that remained close into the late innings.
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East built a 2-0 lead through two innings while holding Rock Springs hitless until the third. The Lady Tigers finally broke through in the fourth inning when Payton “PJ” Tomison recorded Rock Springs’ first hit of the game and drove in Tarin Anderson. Rachael Wallendorff followed later in the inning with another RBI single to tie the game at 2-2.
The score remained tied into the sixth inning before Anderson gave Rock Springs its first lead of the day with a solo home run to right field.
Cheyenne East answered immediately in the bottom half of the inning. After opening with a triple, East tied the game on a sacrifice fly and reclaimed the lead during the next at-bat before breaking the game open with a six-run inning.
Rock Springs entered the seventh trailing 8-3 and could not rally.
Rilynn Wester struck out seven batters in the loss, while Tomison, Anderson and Wallendorff each recorded one hit and one RBI.
Cheyenne East later advanced to the state championship game.
Game 2: Wheatland
Facing elimination for the first time at state, the Lady Tigers responded to the loss to East with a dominant 12-4 win over Wheatland, who entered the matchup fresh off a 21-6 victory over Kelly Walsh.
The Lady Bulldogs scored first Friday, taking a 2-0 lead in the opening inning, but Rock Springs answered immediately.
Ruby Florencio doubled home two runs in the bottom of the first before Jemma McGarvey added another RBI double to give the Lady Tigers a 3-2 lead they would not surrender.
Rock Springs continued to build its advantage throughout the game behind another strong performance from Wester, who struck out 11 batters while allowing five hits and four runs over seven innings.
Florencio finished with five RBIs on three hits, while Tarin Anderson tripled and stole three bases. Rock Springs totaled 11 hits and four stolen bases in the win.
Game 3: Cody
The victory over the Lady Bulldogs advanced the Lady Tigers into another elimination game later Friday against Cody, the same team that eliminated Rock Springs from last year’s state tournament. Earlier this season, Cody edged the Lady Tigers 5-4 on a walk-off.
Friday’s meeting looked different.
Cody grabbed an early 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning, but Rock Springs again responded immediately. Anderson launched her third home run of the state tournament in the bottom of the inning, a three-run shot that gave the Lady Tigers the lead with no outs recorded.
Rock Springs kept rolling from there. After Cody made an early pitching change, the Lady Tigers continued to pile on runs and finished the opening inning ahead 7-2.
By the middle of the third inning, Rock Springs had extended the lead to 12-3, forcing another Cody pitching change. The Lady Tigers eventually pushed the advantage to 15-3 before closing out a 17-6 mercy-rule victory after five innings.
Anderson drove in five runs, while Wallendorff delivered a standout performance from the No. 7 spot in the lineup, going 4-for-4 with six RBIs.
Rock Springs finished with 16 hits in the victory. Wester earned the win in the circle, allowing six runs, three earned, while striking out four.
Coming Up
With the win, Rock Springs advanced to Saturday’s semifinals against Cheyenne Central at 9 a.m. The winner moves on to face undefeated Cheyenne East in the championship round.
Because East remains unbeaten in the double-elimination format, whichever team advances from the semifinal matchup would need to defeat East twice to claim the state title.
With the three remaining teams, this year’s state champion is guaranteed to be a team from the South Conference, and Rock Springs is guaranteed at least a third-place finish.
