PREP SOFTBALL: Monroe bumped by defending champs, still in the hunt for a trophy

Published 11:16 pm Friday, May 23, 2008

TACOMA — If the Monroe fastpitch softball team was even the slightest bit intimidated by the prospect of facing unbeaten defending champion Shadle Park in a 4A state tournament game on Friday afternoon, the Bearcats certainly weren’t showing it.

After leadoff hitter Jordan Birch hit a deep fly ball on her first at-bat against University of Oregon-bound pitcher Sam Skillingstad, she returned to the dugout and told several teammates: “She’s so hittable.”

Monroe’s next batter, Tessa Degel, ran out a passed ball and bumped Shadle Park first baseman Megan Skillingstad — Sam’s freshman sister — so hard that the first baseman fell on her behind.

And then No. 3 hitter Briar Stanley followed up a sharply-hit single by exchanging a few spirited words with the younger Skillingstad at first base.

The Bearcats had plenty of bark heading into their quarterfinal matchup with the state’s top team. But in the end, Shadle Park bit back in a big way.

After Sam Skillingstad led off the second inning with a solo home run — the first earned run off Birch in six games — Shadle Park’s Highlanders cruised to their 22nd consecutive victory by way of a 7-1 win over Monroe. And the only talking the Bearcats could do afterward was about what could have been.

“They’re the defending champions, and they play with a lot of confidence,” Monroe coach Curt Eskeback said. “We made some mistakes in one inning (the third), and good teams take advantage of that. Other than that, it’s just wouldas, couldas and shouldas.”

Birch’s afternoon came apart shortly after the home run, but not necessarily because of it. After yielding a 290-foot shot to the elder Skillingstad, and offering her congratulations as Shadle Park’s star rounded third, Birch struck out the next three batters to finish the second inning. But her final strikeout came with a toll.

A callous on her index finger that has been bothering her for a few weeks broke open on the pitch. She later said she was not allowed to tape it up, so Birch applied a little Super-glue and pitched through the pain.

Obviously bothered by the injury, Birch gave up a leadoff double to start the third. Another hit and two Monroe errors opened the door for five Shadle Park runs and a 6-0 Monroe deficit.

“(The injury) was painful, but mostly I was frustrated because of the way the game was going,” Birch said of the third-inning meltdown. “We just had one bad inning.”

Birch pitched just one more inning after that. After throwing a no-hitter with 14 strikeouts in Monroe’s opening-round win Friday morning, she gave up six runs off three hits in the quarterfinal.

Stanley ended Skillingstad’s shutout bid with a solo home run in the bottom of the sixth inning.

“It felt great,” Stanley said. “Sam’s an awesome pitcher — she’s going to Oregon — so it feels great to hit one off her.”

As for the early fireworks, Stanley said: “We were fired up; they were fired up. Those first couple of innings, we played with them and it looked like it was going to be a good game.”

Birch returned to the mound for a consolation game against Mountain View late Friday night and pitched a 1-0 shutout to keep the Bearcats’ season alive. She also scored the game-winning run on a passed ball in the top of the seventh.

District 1 champion Marysville-Pilchuck and runner-up Jackson both saw their seasons end on Friday night.

Marysville-Pilchuck (14-8) lost its opener after one of the most painful innings of coach KT Allyn’s life. Almost simultaneous with the moment that Rogers of Puyallup’s Bobby-Jo Schaapveld doubled in the go-ahead run in the sixth inning, a fly ball from an adjacent field hit Allyn on the forehead as she stood next to the Tomahawks’ dugout. Trainers attended to her in the Marysville dugout while the game went on, with the Tomahawks eventually losing 2-1.

“It was hard to sit there in the dugout,” Allyn said, “but they said that was the safest place for me.”

Allyn added that the only lingering effect of the injury was a headache.

The Tomahawks went on to win their first consolation game, 2-0 over Central Valley, before losing in dramatic fashion late Friday night. Wilson’s Anthea Aasen singled in two runs with two outs in the bottom of the seventh for a 3-2 win.

Jackson also got knocked out of the tournament with two consecutive losses.

The Timberwolves played their worst game of the season in losing 10-0 to Redmond in a game that was called after five innings Friday morning.

Head coach Mike Moran called it “our biggest stinker in four or five years.”

“I don’t know what it was,” Moran said. “They came out, punched us in the mouth, and we couldn’t recover.”

Jackson fared only slightly better in its consolation game, rallying from a 6-1 deficit with five runs in the sixth inning before losing 8-6 to Woodinville. After winning 15 consecutive games to close out the regular season, the Timberwolves (18-5) lost their final three games in a row.