The focal point most coaches try to carve into a team’s physique as it tumbles headlong into fastpitch tournaments like the one that transpired at Sprinker Recreation Center in Parkland, Wash., the West Central District 3A fastpitch tournament, is to expect the unexpected.

When White River High’s softballers came into Friday and Saturday’s event they didn’t have a wealth of experience to draw from as they hadn’t reached the subdistrict level in nearly a half decade and came in as the last seed out of the South Puget Sound League 3A with a 10-12 record overall.

The Hornet’s first foe Friday was Mount Rainier, a contingent that came into the fray as the No. 1 seed with a highly-touted sophomore pitcher in Blessed Joy Mipolar and an impressive 20-5 overall mark.

To make a long story short, the score at the end of the sixth inning between these two teams on opposite ends of the competitive spectrum was tied at zero and this unlikely turn of events was beginning to draw a sizable crowd.

Behind the pitching of sophomore Sara Steinmetz, who had airtight defense backing her up and had relinquished only three hits while walking one, White River then got a baserunner on in the top of the seventh with two out.

“With her on, two away and one of our better hitters, Brook Paulson coming to the plate, I sent (Miram) Alavia and she got caught stealing at second,” coach Joe Sprouse said. “I figured if she got gunned down at least Paulson would be leading off the next inning (top of the eighth), which unfortunately never came.”

The bottom of the seventh brought heartbreak for the maroon and gold as the first batter up hit a seeing-eye single right back through the heart of the diamond that alluded first Steinmetz then the shortstop.

The next Mount Rainier batter crushed one to right field, but with the bright sun directly in her field of vision, White River’s fielder turned the routine fly ball out into an adventure, which put two on with no outs.

It became apparent Mount Rainier had solved Steinmetz, as the next hitter sent a long, lazy flyball over the WRHS left fielder’s head and the Rams won 1-0.

Four hours later, an emotionally drained White River unit couldn’t generate any offense against Auburn Mountainview in a 9-1 loser-out game that put an abrupt close to a captivating season-ending charge.

for the Hornets.

“I am really proud of the girls for the way they came on strong at the end of the season and gave a highly competitive bunch like Mt. Rainier a true run for its money,” Sprouse said. “We are all excited about next year already, as we are only graduating two seniors. This team came a long way from the back-to-back 13-1 squads, that had been 10-runned so many times, that most of them actually thought at the beginning of this 2009 campaign, that there were only five innings in a regular game.”

Reach John Leggett at jleggett@courierherald.com or 360-802-8207.