3A STATE SOFTBALL: Homers power Everett

Published 11:40 pm Friday, May 23, 2008

TACOMA — When the Everett High School fastpitch softball team opened play at the 3A state tournament on Friday morning, pitcher Cory Mattson didn’t get much help.

Nor did she need it.

Mattson pitched a one-hit shutout, striking out 13 batters, and tripled in the game-winning run.

A few hours later, with a trip to the state semifinals on the line, Everett’s star pitcher got more than enough help. And it came from an unlikely pair of power hitters.

Juniors Valerie Stahl and Alexandra Hudson, neither of whom had hit a home run all season, combined for three homers to lead Everett’s offensive onslaught in an 8-0 win over Liberty in a quarterfinal game on Friday night. Everett (17-4) faces defending state champion Kennedy in a semifinal game this morning at 9.

“(Mattson) gave us relief (Friday) morning,” Stahl said after the win, “so we wanted to do the same for her.”

While Mattson was her typically masterful self on Friday night — she allowed just four hits while striking out 14 against Liberty — the senior had plenty of assistance from the Seagulls’ sluggers.

After Everett loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the second inning of a scoreless game, Liberty recorded back-to-back force plays at home plate. Stahl stepped to the plate hoping to salvage a run or two, and did more than that when she nailed a pitch over the left-field fence.

“With two outs, I’m thinking: darn, it could have been a big inning,” Everett coach Kyle Peacocke said after the win. “Then Valerie cleaned it up, and that’s huge. It really does a lot for team morale.”

Said Stahl: “It was still a 0-0 game, so I didn’t want to leave any base runners hanging.”

In the bottom of the fifth, Hudson added a solo homer over the fence in centerfield. That was her first home run of the season. She added her second an inning later, to almost the exact same spot.

“I was just thinking: base hit, hit the ball hard,” Hudson said, “and it went over the fence. … My dad always tells me that if you try too hard, it’s not going to happen. So I wasn’t trying to hit home runs.”

Stahl’s unlikely grand slam gave Everett a 4-0 lead, then Hudson made it 5-0 with her first solo shot. The Seagulls added two more runs on Liberty errors in the fifth before Hudson hit another homer over the fence in centerfield.

“They’re our No. 1 and 2 hitters, so they’re line drive hitters,” Peacock said of Stahl and Hudson. “But they both have home run power, and they’ve both been swinging the bats very well lately in practice.”

Elizabeth Reed added a double for the Seagulls, while Mattson, Lauren Hope, Chialah Forman, Anna Hudson and Ally Pappas all scored runs.

Mattson did it all in Friday’s opener, pitching a complete-game shutout and setting up both runs in a 2-0 victory over Southridge. Her fourth-inning triple scored Hudson from first, and then pinch runner Tessa Fox scored from third after a groundout.

In her 14 innings of work Friday, Mattson allowed just five hits while striking out 27. The North Carolina-Greensboro commit will face an even more accomplished pitcher today when the Seagulls take on Kennedy (19-0) and Texas Tech recruit Karli Merlich.

“Cory and Karli are both very good pitchers,” Peacocke said. “We’re just excited for the opportunity. They’re the defending state champs, and if you want to get there, you have to beat them.”

This morning, the Seagulls will get that chance.

“It feels pretty good,” Mattson said of making it to the semifinals. “We knew we had it in us. We’re just trying our hardest and seeing what we can do.”