Despite their efforts, the Falcons fell 2-0 to Washington in the Class 4 District 2 Championship game, bringing an end to their 23-5 season.

The Falcons advanced to the championship after defeating Pacific 6-1 and Hillsboro 2-1. Going into the game knowing that they had fallen to Washington last year in the District Championship game as well, coach Chad Jones said that going into the game, the Falcons worked on adapting to Washington’s pitcher.

“We tried to work on some high velocity hitting off the machine. We talked a lot about maybe how to best approach her to do some things different than we had done last year. She’s so tough, a lot of it was focusing on putting the ball in play and at least making them make some defensive plays,” Jones said. “We also kind of know what they want to do offensively, and I thought we did a lot better of a job this year of defending some of the things they do really well offensively.”

Senior Abby Ulsas said she was motivated going into the game after falling to Washington last season.

“I was ready to beat them. I was on a revenge tour. I was just ready for [the game],” Ulsas said.

Despite the Falcons not scoring, senior Maria Scotti said the game was still incredibly intense, and the Falcons never quit fighting.

“It was an extremely hard-fought game. Both teams are [in the] top three in Class 4 and it felt like a State Championship caliber game. It was a super close game which made the loss very difficult but we did everything possible to keep battling in every inning,” Scotti said.

Junior Ali Sandler said she felt the Falcons were still in the game even after Washington scored.

“When they scored I felt a little upset, but I knew they didn’t like pile on runs so I thought we had a chance,” Sandler said.

Jones said the Falcons failed to gain a large hit to get onto the scoreboard, which ended up costing them the game.

“I think we battled really well but we just couldn’t get the big hit. We had eight base runners so we had some chances to score some runs but we’re never really able to get the final hit to score. The girl from Washington was a terrific pitcher, but I thought that [senior] Sami [Scholtz] did a great job. She was pitching her third game in four days and she was able to keep the score close for us to have a chance all the way through. So I think we played well, it’s just that we missed that big hit so it is tough to win,” Jones said.

Jones said the team was driven by the three seniors for the entirety of the season, and they motivated the team to keep fighting during tight games.

“Overall I think the season went really well. We had a group of seniors that really battled hard all year long. They were great examples, they wanted to go out a certain way. I know they wanted another shot at Washington and they ultimately got that. They were so competitive and focused all year long and it drove us to win a lot of close games and to ultimately focus us on being successful,” Jones said.