The Douglas College Royals came oh, so close to their first-ever championship women's softball title.
The upset-minded Royals fell just one-run short following a 6-5 loss to the second-seeded Wenatchee Valley Knights in the Northwest community college final at Chemeketa Community College in Portland, Oregon on Monday.
"I'm very impressed with the girls. . It's a builder. We went there last year and finished sixth. It's an improvement. We'll go back at it next year and see what we can do," said Douglas head coach Gord Collings.
Trailing 50 heading into the sixth inning, the Royals staged a heroic five-run rally to tie Wenatchee Valley, before the East region champion scored the eventual game-winning run in the bottom of the inning on a sacrifice fly to left field.
The No. 6-seeded Royals made program history, advancing to the championship final for the first time in the program's short three-year history.
Melanie Gulbransen led off the top of the inning with a leadoff single.
Hillary Strelau advanced pinch runner Niki Boyd to third on a single before No. 2 batter Iris Chow batted Boyd home with a base hit.
Kyla Myre then loaded the bases and Hession brought home the Royals' second run on a base on balls.
Sydney Jeffers batted in Chow with her second hit of the final and Alisha McFadden added two more RBI before the rally ended.
But that's as close as the Royals would come.
In the final inning, Douglas left the tying run on base after designated hitter Catie Younger struck out swinging for the third and final out.
The win was the first-ever title for the Knights and only their second appearance in a Northwest final since 1985.
Douglas College advanced to the double-knockout final with a 54 upset victory over the No. 1 seed Mt. Hood on Sunday.
Myre, who pitched all but four innings in the seven games played, went the distance, striking out five batters for the all-important win.
"Kyla was special. She carried us," said Collings.
Trailing 42 heading into the top of the sixth inning, Taryn Uyeno led off with a single and later scored on a Gulbranen one-base hit.
Chow then batted in the eventual game-winning runs with her third hit of the day - a two-out, two-strike single that scored Jeffers and Boyd.
Collings said the three-run rally in the sixth against Mt. Hood gave the Royals added confidence they could come back in the final against Wenatchee Valley.
"In the Mt. Hood game we were down 4-2 and we used that as a motivating factor. 'Hey, we can do this,'" he said.
Earlier Sunday, the Royals sent No. 3 and North region rival Bellevue packing for a second time in the competition following a 9-1 win.
Myre again registered the complete-game win, allowing just three Bellevue hits.
Douglas led 1-0 after one inning, but broke the game open with a five-run fourth and three more in the bottom of the sixth.
In the fourth inning, Gulbransen got things started, clubbing home McFadden and Boyd with a two-run double.
Strelau cashed in Gulbransen with a run-scoring triple and later scored on an infield error. Chow also scored.
The Royals handed Bellevue its first loss of the championships in the quarter-finals on Friday, defeating the regular season division champs 8-3.
Myre again recorded the win, striking out four and allowing just five hits. Myre further helped the cause with two runs, two hits and one RBI.
Jeffers added three hits, two runs and one RBI, while catcher Tiana Greenough added some late insurance runs with a three-run dinger in the final seventh inning.
The back-to-back victories over Bellevue produced a mutual respect that carried over from last season, when Douglas stayed to cheer them on after the Washington school eliminated the Royals, said Collings
"(Bellevue) is our conference rival, the team to beat in the conference. But we have developed a relationship with that team," he said. "We cheered them on last year. The Bellevue coach told me the girls wanted to come out and support (Douglas) and would it be OK if the girls wore our other set of jersies. That's really touching. I've never seen anything like that, and I know that (relationship) is going to go on."
Douglas opened with a 4-3 extra-inning victory over Treasure Valley on a game-winning run by Hession on a pitching error on Friday.
On Saturday, the Royals opened play with a 4-1 loss to No. 2 seed Wenatchee Valley, despite outhitting the opposition 8-2 in the championship semifinal bracket.
Emi Nomura batted in the Royals' only run with her second hit of the day. The three-run difference all came down to infield errors in the third inning.
With the loss, Douglas was relegated to the one-loss backdoor bracket.
Later in the day, Douglas got back on track downing Spokane 17-7 in with a 19-hit effort.
Carling Hare came on in relief of Myre to record the win. Myre led all hitters with two hits and four RBI, while Alisha McFadden had two hits and three RBI.
Stelau, Nomura and Greenough also had three hits apiece.
Myre, Jeffers, Chow and Strelau were all named to the all-tournament team.
In the championship final, Myre allowed seven hits and struck out six.
Pitcher Hailey Bator of Wenatchee Valley was named the tournament MVP.
Bator gave up eight hits to the Douglas Royals, while striking out a dozen batters to record the win.
