District 8 slowpitch tournament preview: Central Valley, University land top GSL seeds in tourney
Oct. 18—The District 8 slowpitch softball tournaments involving the Greater Spokane League and Mid-Columbia Conference get underway this week, with the 3A/2A tourney starting on Tuesday and the 4A play-in game on Thursday.
The 4As will send two teams to the state tournament, Oct. 28-29 at Gateway Sports Complex in Yakima, while the 3A/2As will send four teams. The state tournaments will be seeded by the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association seeding committee.
4A
All three GSL 4A teams qualified for the tourney against the two MCC schools that participate in the sport.
Fourth-seeded Gonzaga Prep (6-8, 5-7) travels to Pasco (6-12) on Tuesday in the play-in game.
The winner of the play-in game plays at second-seeded Central Valley (12-4, 9-3) in a semifinal, which is hosting the championship rounds on Saturday. CV, which finished third in the league, is the top GSL 4A seed.
The other semifinal pits third-seeded Lewis and Clark (6-8, 5-7) against top-seeded Chiawana (18-2), the No. 1 team in 4A in the state according to the state's RPI system.
The district title game is at noon with the second-place game at 2 p.m.
3A/2A
The first round is Tuesday with higher seed hosting. The championship rounds are scheduled for Thursday at the highest remaining MCC seed and the third/fourth-place bracket is Saturday, time and place TBD. Should four GSL teams win in the first round, the semifinals and final would be played in Spokane, location TBD.
Top-seeded Walla Walla (12-8) hosts eighth-seeded Shadle Park (5-10, 5-7) at 3:30 p.m.
GSL champion University (14-1, 12-0), the second seed, hosts seventh-seeded Mt. Spokane (11-4, 8-4) at 3:30. U-Hi's only loss this season was a nonleague contest against Mt. Spokane on opening night, when the Wildcats scored eight runs in the fifth and sixth innings to secure the win.
Fourth-seeded Mead (13-1, 11-1) hosts fifth-seeded Ridgeline (10-4, 9-3) at 3 p.m. while sixth-seeded Ferris (9-5, 8-4) travels to Hermiston (7-11) at 4 p.m.
