Jays pitch no-hitter, shut out Williston to advance to WDA semis

DICKINSON, N.D. — Anytime you can pitch a no-hitter, you probably have a pretty good chance at winning a ball game.

"Yeah, we were pretty solid defensively tonight," Jamestown High School head softball coach Mike Soulis said. "Our pitchers believed in our fielding and vice versa, we were on the zone quite a bit, we had a nice defensive dive in the outfield to save a hit so there were a lot of good things that happened tonight in order to get that no-hitter and get that zero on the board."

Soulis and company rode their defensive momentum to a 5-0 win over Williston in the West Region Tournament quarterfinals Thursday afternoon in Dickinson. The win pushes the Jays through to the semifinals. The Jays and Dickinson are queued up to play at 6 p.m. on Friday.

Katie Falk toed the rubber through the first five innings. The senior didn't give up any hits and only walked one batter. She retired two at the plate. Makenna Nold threw for the final two frames, striking out five and walking four.

While it was a shutout, Soulis said he would have liked to see more offensive production from his team,

"We weren't as aggressive on our bats as we typically are," Soulis said. "We were getting down in the counts and then we were being defensive. We should have been more aggressive on the first pitch or two. We dug ourselves a hole and then started swinging defensively instead of offensively so that was a bit of a hindrance."

Williston kept the Blue Jays scoreless through one, but in the bottom of the second, Addison Graves let loose and notched her ninth home run of the year to give the Blue Jays a 1-0 lead.

"Addi is the one who kind of jumped us, who got us on the board and got us going a little bit and then in the next inning we got three runs," Soulis said. "We turned around and when we needed big bats and big hits we got those."

All the Jays have to do on Friday is get the big hits sooner.

"We definitely have to take it up another notch," Soulis said. "It's Dickinson and it's the semifinals. We're the top-four teams. We have to pick up the intensity a little bit and I think that will happen.

"It's Dickinson -- our girls will respond," he said. "Sometimes, like today, it's a hot day, windy day so I think things will be different tomorrow. If our team and our coaches can't get pumped for Dickinson then something is wrong."

Jamestown 5, Williston 0

WIL 000 000 0 — 0 0 1

JHS 013 010 X — 5 4 1

JHS: Katie Falk, Makenna Nold (6); WIL: Caeleigh Goodman

Highlights: JHS — Falk (5 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K); Jada Walter 1-3; Makenna Nold 1-3, RBI, HR; Addison Graves 1-3, RBI, HR; Sophia Bond 1-1.

Josiah C. Cuellar / The Dickinson Press