MOUNTLAKE TERRACE — Every time the Marysville Pilchuck softball team had a big inning in Wednesday’s 14-9 Wesco 3A win over Mountlake Terrace, senior catcher Kylie Lopez had a lot to do with it.
Lopez gave her team the lead in the top of the first inning with a two-run triple. She helped the Tomahawks extend their lead in the top of the third inning with a two-run home run. She also had singles in the sixth and the seventh innings — innings in which the Tomahawks scored three runs apiece — to help thwart two separate comeback attempts by the Hawks.
Lopez finished the game 4-for-5 with a triple, home run and four RBI.
“(She’s) a big strong kid,” Marysville Pilchuck coach Aaron Zachry said. “She sees the ball really well. She’s been playing this game for a long time, since she was a little kid. She calls the game and works behind the plate very well. She’s a very good leader and keeps the girls pumped up.”
It wasn’t hard for Lopez to keep her teammates pumped up the way she was hitting the ball at the plate, but the young Hawks were a resilient bunch.
After the Tomahawks took a 3-0 lead after the top of the first inning, Mountlake Terrace got two runs back in the bottom of the inning thanks to a two-run blast over the left field fence by sophomore catcher Jazz Zenk.
The score remained 3-2 until the top of the third inning when the Tomahawks’ offense exploded again. Lopez started things off with her two-run home run and later in the inning they added two more runs on a two-run single by freshman Sydney Zachry.
With an 8-3 lead in the top of the fourth inning and the bases loaded with just one out, it looked like the Tomahawks might run away with the game, but junior pitcher Kira Doan, who came in to relieve sophomore starter Sammy Ruiz, got the final two batters of the inning to pop out and keep the Hawks within striking distance.
They pulled to within two runs with a three-run bottom of the fifth inning. It was the first of four straight half innings where three runs were scored, which was enough to keep Marysville Pilchuck, which always seemed to have an answer for the Hawks, in front.
“It’s really easy to get a lead and sit back and let them creep back in it,” Coach Zachry said. “They did that. We had a few mistakes tonight defensively that let them back in the game, but it seems like every time we did, they would get some more runs.”
The win keeps the Tomahawks in first place in the Wesco 3A North two games clear of Everett. They are 5-1 in Wesco 3A crossover games and still have a meeting with undefeated Meadowdale coming up in the final game of the season.
“The south has been playing some pretty good softball,” Coach Zachry said. “We knew it was going to be a pretty good game. We’ve been keeping our eye on Terrace. …They’re young. They’ve got good pitching and they’ve got four or five really good batters.”
Coach Zachry said he likes the current scheduling format that give his team a chance to see the teams from the south as well as playing the teams in the north twice.
“I like how they’ve got it set up right now,” he said. “The crossovers, we knew, were going to be key for how the season ended up come playoff time.”
Aaron Lommers covers prep sports for The Herald. Follow him on Twitter at @aaronlommers and contact him at alommers@heraldnet.com.
At Mountlake Terrace H.S.
WP: McKenzie Justice (1-1, 3 R). LP: Sammy Ruiz (1-3, 4 RBI). Individual highlights: Marysville Pilchuck—Kylie Lopez (4-5, 3B, HR, 4 RBI), Chloe Morgan (2-5, 2B, 3B), Katie Barrett (2B), Lilianne Fischer (2-2, 2B); Mountlake Terrace—Jazz Zenk (3-4, 2B, HR, 2 R, 4 RBI), Kira Doan (1-3, 3 R), Ashley Fitzgerald (2-2, 2 R). Records—Marysville Pilchuck 8-1 league, 10-2 overall. Mountlake Terrace 8-4, 10-4.
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