LACEY — The Mountlake Terrace softball team had 15 home runs during the regular season.
The Hawks upped that total a bit Friday, belting eight home runs in their three games at the 3A state tournament. Mountlake Terrace capped its day, where the Hawks went 2-1, with a four-home run game against Enumclaw.
Rene Bos and Hannah Baisch hit a solo home run and a grand slam apiece, to lead Mountlake Terrace to a 12-8 come-from-behind win over Enumclaw in a loser-out game Friday night at the Regional Athletic Complex in Lacey.
“That’s crazy,” Baisch said. “I have no idea how that happened. No idea.”
Mountlake Terrace head coach Shannon Rasmussen was at a loss for an explanation as well.
“I don’t know,” she said. “It’s a weird day.”
Rasmussen was kind of concerned because the team didn’t get a lot of batting practice this week. A lot of the players missed practice sick, with only four players able to go on Monday.
“Apparently that was our problem. We just needed to stop hitting practice,” Rasmussen said.
With Mountlake Terrace trailing 7-2, Baish and Bos hit back-to-back solo home runs in the fifth inning to close the gap. But Enumclaw, which had just lost to Meadowdale in 10 innings, responded with another run in the bottom half of the inning to maintain an 8-4 lead.
Then the grand slams started coming.
Bos had hers in the top of the sixth to tie the game at eight, and Baisch added another in the top of the seventh inning with one out to give the Hawks a nice 12-8 cushion for the final inning.
“It’s really nerve-wracking to see the bases loaded, tie game. This is it,” Baisch said. “I knew right away it was gone. I just trotted around the bases and let it soak in.”
The home runs were the first two of the season for Bos, who was the winning pitcher in the Hawks’ two victories. After dropping their first round-game of the state tournament against Prairie 7-4 — in eight innings — Bos pitched Mountlake Terrace to victory against Bonney Lake, winning 4-1, before taking on Enumclaw in the Hawks’ second loser-out game of the day.
“I think Rene came out huge throwing her second game,” Rasmussen said. “It’s hard to come out and throw two big games.”
Mountlake Terrace got off to a bit of a sluggish start after waiting for a couple hours between their second and third games. With Wesco 3A South rival Meadowdale taking Enumclaw to 10 innings, the start of the Hawks’ third game of the day was delayed a bit, wearing down the Hawks.
“We’re exhausted,” Baisch said. “It’s hard to wait around so long between games.”
Rasmussen saw her team struggling a bit in the early innings.
“I was kind of getting a little nervous, yeah,” Rasmussen said. “It kind of had a different feel out there. It felt like the girls were just going through the motions. Once we got one big hit they kind of just started happening. I guess they’re contagious.”
So are grand slams.
With grand slams in back-to-back innings, Mountlake Terrace (15-11 overall) continued its season, moving on to face Bainbridge Saturday morning at 9 a.m.
“The girls have played together for a long time and they wanted to keep playing together,” Rasmussen said. “I kept telling them leave everything on the field and I’m pretty sure they have left everything on the field.
“It’s probably one of the biggest and best comebacks that I’ve ever been a part of. Playing in or watching or anything. I’m just excited to be able to come back tomorrow and play.”
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