The Sumner High and White River High girls’ fastpitch squads met Monday afternoon at the South Puget Sound League 3A/Seamount League subdistrict tournament at Sprinker Recreation Center in Parkland, Wash., but the two took two very different roads to reach that stage.

Pesky White River, which started out the season 0-10, fought its way back into the postseason picture as it ended its regular campaign in a three-way tie with Peninsula and Lakes (all 3-11 during the league season). The Hornets beat Peninsula 9-6 and Lakes 6-4 in a three-way playoff May 13 to earn the sixth and final seed from the SPSL 3A.

The first round of the weather-delayed subdistrict eliminations, originally slated to begin Thursday, instead commenced Friday and featured a harried Hornet crew having to avoid losing twice.

In its initial skirmish with Lindbergh, the Hornets suffered a 10-0 whitewashing at the hands of the Eagles. White River quickly turned things around in the second tilt to stay in contention. In its loser-out encounter with Renton, it was the Indians who were sent home as White River dominated the Tribe 10-1.

In the Renton game, White River’s Meghan Dietrich fanned ten Indian batters and walked none. The other half of the Hornet pitching pair, Sara Steinmetz, moved to second base and excelled offensively, going 2-for-3 from the plate, contributing two runs and stealing two bases.

White River was facing Sumner at the Sprinker complex for the right to be one of the nine teams to move on to the Friday-Saturday Class 3A West Central District fastpitch tournament, also at Sprinker. The district tournament will whittle the field to seven teams that will advance to the Class 3A state tournament at the South End Recreation Area fields in Tacoma, May 29 and 30.

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