PREP SOFTBALL: Everett swats its way to victory
Published 11:42 pm Thursday, May 15, 2008
SEDRO-WOOLLEY — The bigger the game, the smaller the Everett Seagulls try to play.
Everett unveiled a new slap-happy offense Thursday night in the semifinals of the Class 3A District softball tournament and the result was a 9-3 win over Arlington at Janicki Fields.
“We had a game plan to basically play a short game,” said Everett coach Kyle Peacocke, whose team bunted and swatted its way to 13 hits. “That’s something they haven’t seen from us.”
The strategy propelled the Seagulls, who beat Meadowdale 9-1 in the opening round, into the title contest. Everett (17-4) plays Mount Vernon, a 4-0 winner over Shorecrest in the other semifinal, at 11 a.m. Saturday for the district championship. The winner earns a state berth.
Arlington (11-11) plays Ferndale at 5 p.m. today in a loser-out contest.
Everett and Arlington, both members of the Wesco North, split two tight games during the regular season. But this was a different Everett team – at least at the plate.
“They went to a different game: They bunted us to death in the first three innings,” said Arlington coach Dan Eng, whose team fell behind 6-1 in the first three frames. “They’ve never bunted us before. They played a power game with us, just like we were doing to them. They executed their bunts. I have to applaud them for that.”
Two Everett hitters, Ally Pappas and Lauren Hope, even went so far as to bat from the left side of the plate, which the Eagles had not seen before.
“Right now I have a thing with my hand and it hurts to hit right-handed, so three days ago I converted to slapping from the left side,” said Pappas, senior. “It’s a tough move, but I’m working on it.”
She finished the game 2-for-3 and scored a pair of runs.
“It’s really nice to play small ball, especially in big tournaments like this,” Pappas said. “It’s definitely the way to go because it forces (teams) to make plays and hopefully make errors or not make the plays at all.”
Of the Seagulls’ 13 hits, 12 were singles. Not until Cory Mattson doubled in the fifth inning – Everett’s final base knock of the game – did the Seagulls collect an extra-base hit.
Everett took the lead for good by batting around in the second inning. The Seagulls collected five hits in the frame, three of which never left the infield. Pappas opened the inning by grounding a single to left. Stephanie Monson and Chailah Formon added bunt singles to load the bases with one out.
The Seagulls scored their first run on the second of Arlington’s four errors, then Valerie Stahl lined a two-run single into center field. Mattson capped the inning with run-scoring single off the leg of Arlington pitcher Allie Milless to give the Seagulls a 4-0 advantage.
That proved to be all the runs Mattson, the Seagulls’ ace right-hander, needed. She pitched a complete game, allowing just five hits. She struck out seven.
Lisa Allen, Arlington’s junior cleanup hitter, had two hits and drove in two runs. Christina Rayner added a pair of singles and drove in the Eagles’ final run.
Rayner was a big reason Arlington reached the semifinals. She pitched a one-hitter and struck out 12 in Arlington’s 1-0 first-round victory over Sedro-Woolley, the Northwest League’s No. 2 seed. The only hit she allowed was a double to the Cubs’ leadoff batter.
“She’s my number one,” Eng said of Rayner, a junior,. “She did her job. She got us into the winner’s bracket by winning that first game. That was our goal, to win the first game.”
Now the Eagles’ goal is to get another shot at Everett – although not this weekend.
“Hopefully we’ll meet them again,” Eng said, “at state”
At Sedro-Woolley
Seagulls 9, Eagles 3
Arlington0010002—354
Everett042120x—9130
Milless, Rayner (3) and No. 47, No. 9 (3); Mattson and Anna Hudson. WP: Mattson. LP: Milless. Leading hitters: Arl—Allen (2-3, 2 RBI); Eve—Stahl (2-5, 2 RBI), Mattson (2-4, 2B, 2 RBI), Monson (3-4). Records—Arlington 11-11; Everett 17-4.
