Mountlake Terrace hangs on to beat Edmonds-Woodway 3-2

Published 1:30 am Friday, April 28, 2017

MOUNTLAKE TERRACE — Senior Mountlake Terrace pitcher Kira Doan doesn’t always pile up prodigious strikeout totals, but the Hawks hurler proved Friday there are multiple ways to dominate from the circle.

Doan took a no-hitter into the seventh inning and retired the final Edmonds-Woodway hitter with the tying run at third base as Mountlake Terrace defeated the Warriors 3-2 Friday afternoon at Mountlake Terrace High School.

“She’s not a huge strikeout pitcher,” Mountlake Terrace coach Shannon Rasmussen said. “She’ll have games where she’ll strike out more girls, but she just is great at mixing up her pitches and keeps girls off-balance a lot with off-speed pitches and it gets the ground balls that we need or gets them to pop up and chase pitches.”

The Terrace win avenged an ugly 12-10 loss to the Warriors back on March 22. The teams combined for a dozen errors in that contest with E-W scoring six runs in its final at-bat to come from behind for the win.

“It was kind of a win we should have had the first time we played them,” Doan said. “So we just wanted to make sure we got this one.”

The Hawks (11-2 Wesco 3A South, 12-3 overall) remain in first place in the division despite being a Class 2A school playing in a combined 3A/2A league. The Warriors (9-4, 10-5) have dropped four of their last six.

“This time I thought it was a well-played game overall,” E-W coach Mike Venable said. “We just didn’t solve the pitcher until the last couple things and then it was a little too late.”

The final inning contained plenty of drama. Doan entered the seventh with a 3-1 lead and the no-hitter still intact, but Mariah Woolery led off with a double to break up the no-hitter. Woolery then came home on Sammy Dickinson’s two-out RBI single to cut the deficit to 3-2. Dickinson, representing the tying run, went to second on the throw home and advanced to third on a wild pitch.

But Doan induced a game-ending groundout to preserve the win.

“We came out with a lot more intensity especially since we lost to them that first game and it was a little rough for us,” Doan said. “But we really fought for that win today.”

The Hawks built a 3-0 lead and took it into the top of the sixth. Jackie Lovelace reached on a one-out error, stole second and then scored on another error as the Warriors cut the deficit to 3-1 without the benefit of a hit.

Mountlake Terrace opened the scoring in the bottom of the first when Gabby Calhoun singled and came home on a sacrifice fly from Sammy Ruiz. The Hawks added another run in the second when Jamie Bingaman reached on an error and scored on Calhoun’s RBI single.

A Jazz Zenk solo home run in the fifth proved the final run.

Doan struck out four was perfect until issuing a two-out walk to Kendra Cooper in the fourth.

The Hawks have won 12 of 13 since opening the season with two losses.

“We had a lot of high hopes at the beginning of the season and those two games kind of crushed us,” Rasmussen said. “We just had to get back into the swing of things. … I think getting out and getting some innings under our belt has helped a ton.”

Calhoun finished 3-for-3 with a run and an RBI. Woolery took the loss for E-W despite allowing just two earned runs while fanning four.