Marysville-Pilchuck beats Jackson for district title
Published 11:27 pm Saturday, May 17, 2008
MONROE — During an improbable softball season that started slow and gradually built steam, Marysville-Pilchuck freshman phenom Riley Fritz often threw the Tomahawks on her wispy-but-able shoulders and carried them away.
On Saturday afternoon, sophomore teammate Jenifer Rosie turned the tables on M-P’s pitching sensation — both literally and figuratively.
After Rosie delivered the key hit of Marysville Pilchuck’s improbable run to the District 1 championship, she threw her diminutive teammate onto her back in celebration.
“We’ve known each other a long time,” Rosie said. “We played T-ball together and on the same select team. It was fun to win this with her.”
While Rosie and Fritz have plenty of chances to make more memories at Marysville-Pilchuck, Saturday’s district title by way of a 4-2 win over Jackson serves as a welcome return to old for the program and head coach KT Allyn.
Allyn built up a perennial contender before stepping down in 2004 to concentrate on raising a family. After two years away from softball, Allyn returned to a struggling program that had fallen too far too fast.
In 2007, with Allyn at the helm, the Tomahawks missed out on the postseason for the first time in the program’s history.
And so when the 2008 season began, she promised an unheralded group of players that they could reach unexpected heights if they put in the work.
After a slow start, Marysville-Pilchuck found its identity and went on quite a tear. The Tomahawks (12-7) shocked Wesco North No. 1 seed Monroe in Friday’s semifinals, then knocked off South No. 1 seed Jackson in Sunday’s championship.
“When we started the season, I thought this was a longshot,” Allyn said after Saturday’s victory. “But as the season went on, we changed our goals. We kept raising the bar.”
On the eve of this year’s district tournament, Allyn took her players to the trophy case at MPHS. She showed them photographs of championship teams past, just to give the 2008 Tomahawks a visual reminder.
“Our program has a history of success,” Allyn said Saturday, two days after the visit to the trophy case. “Here are these pictures of girls, 14 to 18 years old, with these big 80s haircuts, celebrating and holding trophies. Those same girls are women now, some of them in their 40s, and they’re still sharing that moment as if they’re still 14 to 18.
“I just thought that seeing the photos would drive the point home.”
Jackson had the first big inning in Saturday’s district final, rallying for two runs in the bottom of the fifth to go ahead 2-1. But Rosie and the Tomahawks responded with four hits and three runs in the top of the sixth. The backbreaker was Rosie’s bases-loaded double, which drove in a pair of runs to give M-P a 3-2 lead.
“I have to hand it to my teammates, because they’re the ones who got on base,” said Rosie, who went hitless in two Friday games before going 2-for-3 in Saturday’s final. “If the bases weren’t loaded, my hit wouldn’t have meant anything.”
The diminutive Fritz, who packs far more punch than expected, overcame nine hits to earn another victory.
“She was amazing all season,” Rosie said. “A lot of this is due to her.”
Jackson (19-4) will join Marysville-Pilchuck and Monroe at next weekend’s state tournament in Tacoma. The Timberwolves were cruising through the district tournament until the sixth inning of Saturday’s championship game, when two errors helped Marysville-Pilchuck forge a two-out rally.
“I give the kids credit,” Jackson coach Mark Moran said. “They went on a 15-, 16-game run, and then they came up with a stinker at a bad time.
“But we have to flush that, come back to practice Monday, and get ready for state. Not many teams can say that.”
At Skykomish River Park
M-P0010030—460
Jackson0000200—292
WP: Fritz. LP: Jackman.
Monroe 1, Mountlake Terrace 0: The Monroe Bearcats took the hard road to the state tournament, winning back-to-back games Saturday after falling to Marysville-Pilchuck the previous day.
Monroe’s ace pitcher, Jordan Birch, continued to dominated the competition with 14 shutout innings. She allowed just one run — it was unearned — in 28 innings of tournament play.
Birch (17-3) gave up just two earned runs in 148 innings during the regular season and district tournament. She struck out 57 batters in the four games of the tournament, including 13 in each of Saturday’s wins.
Teammate Briar Stanley drove in the game-winning run in a 2-0 victory over Cascade in Saturday’s opener, then Tessa Degel drove in the lone run as the Bearcats (18-3) beat Mountlake Terrace 1-0 in the winner-to-state game.
It marks the third consecutive trip to the state tournament for Monroe, which got a boost from the return of senior Shannon Fretz. She was playing for the first time since suffering major injuries in a car accident on Highway 2 in December.
Mountlake Terrace advanced to Saturday afternoon’s winner-to-state game thanks to Natarah Balderson’s sacrifice fly in the bottom of the seventh inning of an earlier game against Stanwood.
Third-place game
M. Terrace0000000—021
Monroe001000x—141
WP: Birch (17-3). LP: Seidlitz (18-6).
Consolation
Mountlake Terrace 1, Stanwood 0
Stanwood0000000—000
M. Terrace0000001—121
WP: Seidlitz (18-5). LP: Jeans.
Monroe 2, Cascade 0
Cascade0000000—032
Monroe002000x—241
WP: Birch (16-3). LP: Rutter.
