Bounties of young talent for senior-less Richland softball

Not many teams get to end their season with a victory, but the Richland High School softball team did just that last year, winning five straight games to close out the state tournament, including a 2-1 win over Jackson in the third/fourth-place game.

But after graduating four All-Mid Columbia Conference seniors — including Co-Player of the Year Stephanie Merwin — the Bombers have a much different look than last year’s MCC co-champion team. And maybe that gives them something to prove.

“It’s a brand new team this year,” Richland coach Casey Emery said. “We lost five really good seniors last year and only return two full-time starters from last year’s team.

“With all of our young kids, and trying to put all the pieces together, word is that people are saying that Richland softball is down this year. I’m not so sure — we’ll find out.”

While Richland has no seniors on the roster, it returns its key cog from the last two state tournament runs — runners-up in 2015 — in junior pitcher Brandi Andrews. Andrews hit .591 (13-for-22) with five extra-base hits and 10 RBIs in the Bombers’ six state games last year, and pitched all 33 innings in the games they won.

She opened this season by going 7-for-7 with three home runs, three doubles and 12 RBIs to lead the Bombers to wins over Emerald Ridge and Coeur d’Alene at the Richland Softball Mixer on Saturday.

“I’m just picking the pitches that I want,” Andrews said. “It helps that I’ve got fast people in front of me that get on base, so they get on base and I just hit them in.”

The All-MCC first team power pitcher admittedly lost a little steam in the circle as last season wore on, but the Bombers have added some rotational depth with junior right-hander Amanda Brown and freshman southpaw Kaylie Northrop ready to eat up some innings.

“Last year at state it was kind of hard because my arm got hurt, and we didn’t have anyone to kind of pick me up,” Andrews said. “It’s kind of nice this year we have a freshman (Northrop) that can pick me up, and we have Amanda who can come in and pitch a couple innings too.”

With Merwin, a third baseman, and shortstop Natalie Giroux among the team’s key departures, the Bombers’ infield will undergo quite a few shakeups this season. Some stability should be added as junior second baseman Miranda Camacho — a first team All-Conference selection — returns from an ACL tear that kept her sidelined for the 2016 postseason push.

“I’m excited. I feel good, I’m ready to be back,” Camacho said. “I feel like it’s been a long time.”

Camacho returning to her home at second pushes her replacement, sophomore Sydney Perryman, over to third base in the starting lineup. Sophomore Emily Garza, a first team All-MCC first baseman last year, is slotted to fill Giroux’s spot at shortstop with freshman Addison Pettit taking over at first.

The Bombers also graduated three-time first team All-Conference catcher Paige Liikala, and Emery is giving juniors Journey Dewey, Adie Luchi and Aspyn Johnson a chance to prove themselves behind the dish.

Although the team is young, morale and expectations are running high for Richland.

“I feel like, yeah, we lost a lot of seniors, but we have a lot of juniors, and that’s going to make up for it,” Camacho said. “I feel like with how young our team is, we get along really well, and our communication is really good this year.”

The Bombers will get their first big test of the season Friday when they travel to play defending 2A state champion Othello, which is led by senior pitcher Dominque Martinez, the 2016 Tri-City Herald All-Area Player of the Year. First pitch is scheduled for 4 p.m.

This story was originally published March 23, 2017 at 6:03 PM with the headline "Bounties of young talent for senior-less Richland softball."