Snoqualmie Valley Sports Journal

It’s another weekend of local U14 softball action this weekend, with many Valley girls’ athletes represented. Here’s a look at yesterday’s action.

Flame Abraham take two of three to start weekend
The Issaquah Flame Abraham rebounded from a slow start to post two wins and move into today’s play on a strong note. After falling in their opener to a team from Canada, the Abraham side blasted the Blaze Dynamite 11-1 to close out the action. North Bend’s Heather Hinton went 2-2 and drove in three runs to lead the Valley crew in that contest. Fellow Valleyites Hannah Griffin and Tori Hellervik also picked up hits to aid the Abraham efforts.

Hinton also had two hits in the other Abraham win, a 7-6 result over the Bellevue Blast Black.

Redhawks, Flame Zacher both win, lose and draw
The other two teams we are following with local players, the Redhawks and Issaquah Flame Zacher, both went 1-1-1, winning one, losing one, and ending a third in a tie.

Flame Zacher got their win in their nightcap last night, a 4-1 result over the Surrey Storm from Canada. North Benders Maddy Trout and Bayley Barnett each had hits to aid the Zacher efforts in that game. Earlier, Zacher tied the Oregon Titans, and fell to the Washington Patriots. In that loss to the Pats, Barnett was in the circle, and gave up all seven Patriot runs, only four of which were earned, on just six hits; the Mount Si High School varsity freshman struck out six.

Meanwhile, the Redhawk bats were hot all day in their win, lose and draw threesome. In the opener, the ‘Hawks tied the Oregon Panthers 7-7. Cedarcrest High’s Hailey Lacher led the way, going 2-3, with a double, an RBI and two runs scored. Tolt Middle School’s Morgan Brown also had two hits and two runs scored and fellow Tolt classmate Maddie Nixon added a pair of hits herself, driving in two runs. Bear Creek School’s Michelle Kahue doubled, and Mount Si High’s Rose Vogt added a triple, and drove in two runs.

Vogt, Nixon and Kahue kept it up for the Redhawks in the second game of the day, a wild win over the Northwest Wildfire. The game was tied 1-1 headed to the sixth inning, and the two teams combined to score 11 runs in that final frame, with the Redhawks scoring six to outlast the Wildfire 7-6. Nixon went 2-3 with a double, two runs scored and two more driven in to lead the Valley team, who also had a 2-3 effort from Kahue in which she scored a run and drove in a second. Vogt also went 2-3, with two runs driven in and another run scored.

The heroine of the contest was pitcher Claire Lis. Lis, who attends Snoqualmie Middle School, came in to pitch for Brown in the final inning after the Redhawks starter gave up a bases-loaded triple to the Wildfire to make things interesting with no one out. Lis then proceeded to shut down the Wildfire bats, getting the next three hitters out, two by strikeout, to slam the door shut.

The nightcap did not go the Redhawks’ way, as they fell to Lake Breeze of Lake Stevens 5-3. The ‘Hawks had four hits, led by Lacher and Nixon, whose tallies helped drive in a run each. Mount Si’s Taylor Treado also drove in a run, with Brown and Cedarcrest players Rachel Kent and Devin Gastelum all scoring runs.

Action continues today, with a game underway this morning between the two Flame teams.

The Mount Si Wildcat baseball team is headed back to state for the third straight season after winning the Kingco championship in hard-fought fashion.

The Wildcats outlasted Bellevue 3-2 last night in a pitcher’s duel to take the crown, which also is their third straight. Connor Swift pitched well for 4 1/3 innings, giving up two earned runs on just four hits, but it was his reliever, Nick Adams, who proved to be the difference, pitching perhaps his best outing of the season at its most critical time for his team. Adams pitched one-hit ball over the final 2 2/3 innings to earn the save, his first of the season.

Carson Breshears led the way for Mount Si at the plate, with three of the team’s four total hits on the night; he also had a run scored and RBI, and Brian Woolley had the fourth hit, and also drove in a run. Woolley’s single in the first drove in Breshears to open the scoring, then Evan Johnson hit into a groundout at short with runners on in scoring position in the third with just one out to score Joey Cotto from third base to extend the Wildcat lead. A fifth-inning single from Breshears scored Wyatt Baker-Jagla to make it 3-0, then the Wolverines scored twice in that inning to make it tight the rest of the way.

Bellevue mounted one last rally in the seventh, but Jack Meggs, who had walked, was caught stealing second base by Mount Si catcher Zach Usselman, then Adams retired the last two Wolverine hitters on groundouts to close out the game and the three-peat for the Kingco championship.

Mount Si now advances to the Bannerwood regionals in Bellevue as the top SeaKing seed. They will meet the West Central/Southwest #3 seed next Saturday at 1:00. Among the potential opponents for that game is Peninsula, who the Wildcats played at Mount Si High School April 27, and were trailing in that game when the rains hit and called the contest before it could be made official. The 3rd-place WCD game is this afternoon at Auburn Mountainview High School, and the other teams also potentially that could play in that game include North Thurston, Bonney Lake and the hosts from AMV.

Mount Si softball to districts after solid day at league tourney
As projected here yesterday, the Wildcat fastpitch ladies earned the runner-up seed at the Kingco tourney, and will meet the Metro #8 seed in the loser-out first round of the SeaKing District tournament in Seattle next Thursday at 2:00 p.m.

Mount Si beat Interlake in the first game 5-4, then fell in the league title game last night at Hartman Park in Redmond to Juanita 9-1. All of these teams advanced to the SeaKing tourney.

Also moving on to the district tournament is Mercer Island, and for them, it’s their first trip to districts in years, and the first for current head coach Jessica Steinle. The Islanders, as many Kingco softball followers know, have struggled mightily for a long time, but the team this season has made some inroads to potentially become more competitive in the future, and a trip to this tournament will certainly be a confidence boost for those girls, to be sure.

For you Mount Si softball fans, here’s a quick look at the Kingco tournament being held today at Redmond’s Hartman Park:

Kingco 3A Softball Tournament
Semifinals – Mount Si Wildcats vs. Interlake Saints, Hartman Park, Redmond, 2:00 first pitch
Wildcats and Saints meet for third time, with each team winning on their home field during regular season. Key hitters to watch for Mount Si include senior Tamarra Crowe, bound for Division II Merrimack, senior Lauren Smith, bound for D-III Lynchburg, and junior Rachael Picchena. But Interlake’s team has had a good season, too, and their top hitter, Carly Pim, is one to watch as well.

Game may come down to who’s in circle, and Mount Si has three very different styles of pitching they can choose from. Interlake has seen two of those styles already (the toughness of both Paige Wetherbee and Bayley Barnett), so perhaps style three is in order – the focused, composed one of one Ms. Rose Vogt. We’ve heard the name Kendra Lee used to describe how Vogt has performed this spring, and from what we’ve seen of this freshman, we would say that her pitching style does resemble to some degree the Mount Si grad Lee’s, but with one difference: Vogt’s penchant for making life miserable on hitters if they don’t stay disciplined at the plate. You do all know she got three outs on three pitches in an inning last week against Liberty, don’t you? Pick: Mount Si 5, Interlake 2

A win advances Mount Si into the finals, where it is expected they will meet Juanita, and we look once again for a good contest there. Wildcats swept Juanita in season series, and key hitters to watch in that game will be Wetherbee and Nikki Carroll, who both homered in game at Juanita this season; we had video proof of that for you here from Juanita’s cameraman Chris Faist. The hard part about picking this one, and we suspect Juanita actually gets this done today, is it’s hard to beat a team three  times in a season, especially a good one like Rebels.

It is largely for that reason we’re siding with Juanita, but not to worry. Mount Si, if that result happened, would open with lowly Metro Sound foe more likely than not at districts, and that will allow a lot of their freshmen and junior varsity callups a chance to get their feet wet at this stuff. Do know that this JV team wasn’t too bad themselves this year, and could on their own beat half of the Metro varsity teams that compete in this district thing each year. So everything’s going to be fine, everyone. More on that this weekend.