Shorecrest softball walks off Mountlake Terrace

Published 1:52 am Thursday, March 26, 2026

SHORELINE — As soon as the ball left her bat, Ruby Smevik figured she had won the game for Shorecrest softball.

Leading off the bottom of the seventh inning with the score tied 3-3 against Mountlake Terrace on Wednesday, the freshman catcher got a boost of confidence from her teammate, Lilia Titiali’i-McKinnon, who was due to bat behind her.

“She was like, ‘It only takes one to win the game,’” Smevik said. “And so I was like, ‘Oh, wow, she thinks I can hit a home run.’”

She was certainly onto something.

Smevik got a pitch right down the middle, and she sent it high towards the center field wall. Based on the trajectory and the noise off the bat, the entire Shorecrest dugout prepared to spill onto the field to celebrate the walk-off home run.

Instead, it fell short at the wall. Smevik felt a twinge of disappointment after posting up at second base with a double, but she quickly remembered there are plenty of worse ways to lead off a late inning. She would not have to wait there long anyway.

Titiali’i-McKinnon fouled off two pitches before putting one in play just past the Mountlake Terrace first baseman’s glove, scoring Smevik from second on a game-winning RBI double to right field.

The Scots (5-0, 1-0 league) continued their undefeated start to the season with the 4-3 victory against the Hawks (1-3, 0-1 league).

“I was just happy because (Titiali’i-McKinnon) was like, ‘It only takes one,’ and I was happy to be the one who got home,” Smevik said.

Smevik (2 extra-base hits) and Titiali’i-McKinnon (2 RBI) each went 2-for-4 to lead the offense, while Jossalyn Acacio walked in all three of her plate appearances. Claire Maxwell pitched a complete game in the circle, striking out six while allowing 10 hits and three walks.

Shorecrest is just one win away from matching last year’s win total (6-14, 2-10 league). No single factor is the sole reason behind such a turnaround, but coach Cristall Olson pointed to the first week of the season in early March — when the team held a sleepover in the school gym — as a major catalyst.

“We were really focusing on team bonding and coming together as a team, and I think that really helped a lot,” Olson said. “And then our philosophy is just ‘pass the bat.’ How are we going to pass the bat? Where are we going to go? Before every game, it’s like ‘What is the most important game we’re going to play?’ And it’s today. … The players are doing great, and it’s just such a fun group. It’s a great start to the year.”

While Wednesday’s game came down to the final at-bat, the Scots piled on runs in each of their first four games. After a narrow 11-10 win against Newport in the season-opener on March 11, Shorecrest picked up decisive wins against Holy Names Academy (16-6 on March 12), Marysville Pilchuck (24-1 on Monday) and Cascade (21-8 on Tuesday) heading into league play.

The Scots used the team-bonding sleepover as an opportunity to address their previous flaws and commit to putting in the work to fix them, while also not losing sight on having fun.

“I think at practice, we’re taking it a lot more serious, and really showing up,” said Natalie Fernandez, who went 1-for-3 for an RBI and two runs scored on Wednesday. “And I think that’s been really huge. … We’re all playing together as a team.”

Shorecrest ended up on top, but Mountlake Terrace had its opportunities to win the game. After taking a 3-2 lead in the second, the Hawks put at least one runner in scoring position in the third, fifth and sixth innings, but failed to plate any of them. After starting the season with a 26-2 win against Ingraham on March 11, Mountlake Terrace has lost three straight.

“We didn’t get that clutch hit, and they did,” Hawks coach Shannon Rasmussen said. “We had runners on base (almost) every single inning, and up and down our order, we got girls on base, and we just needed that one clutch hit to come through and get the run. …

“I think they just are going to learn every at-bat, every inning, when you get up to bat if there’s runners on, you’ve got to step it up and make sure that you come through and do your job to get those runs across. That it can come down to literally that one time that you didn’t get a base hit when we needed it.”

Amaya Johnson delivered a strong two-way performance for Mountlake Terrace, going 2-for-4 with two RBI and a home run while striking out five across six innings in the circle. Jordyn Stokes and Avery Roesler each went 2-for-4 as well, with Stokes driving in the other run.

The Hawks jumped ahead early, as Johnson crushed a two-run homer to left-center in the top of the first inning, but Shorecrest pushed back in the bottom of the frame. Fernandez scored Riu Hanrahan with an RBI double to center, and after advancing to third on the throw, reached home on a groundout from Lyla Ann Taing to tie the game 2-2.

“Even when I did have moments where I kind of did a pop fly or whatever, I just kind of refocused my energy,” Fernandez said. “And just remembered I’m here for the team, and just kept my energy up.”

Stokes reclaimed the lead for Mountlake Terrace with an RBI single to center in the top of the second, but Maxwell settled in the circle from there. She stranded two runners in both the second and third innings before going 1-2-3 in the fourth.

In between, the Scots tied it up 3-3 in the third. Fernandez led off the inning with a walk, and a pair of groundouts moved her to third. Titiali’i-McKinnon went down 0-2 in the count, one strike away from leaving Fernandez on base, but she blasted a ball high to center field. The Mountlake Terrace outfielder could not get under the ball in time, and it dropped for a single to allow Fernandez to score.

Maxwell fell into more trouble in the fifth, with runners advancing to second and third on a passed ball, but she notched a strikeout to escape the jam. The Hawks put two runners on once again in the sixth, this time with Johnson’s big bat coming to the plate with two outs. After throwing Ball One, Maxwell induced a grounder to third for an easy force out to prevent a run yet again.

“I think really when they had some good hitters up, and I knew they were good and they could really hit the ball, I definitely was not trying to throw strikes right down the middle,” Maxwell said. “I was obviously throwing it off (the plate) a little bit.”

Maxwell did enough to give the bats an opportunity to win the game, and Smevik and Titiali’i-McKinnon went back-to-back to get the job done. With three straight league games coming up — including a rematch against Mountlake Terrace on Monday — the Scots feel confident they can keep things rolling.

“It’s so hard, but we as a team this year, we bring each other up versus kind of every now and then, you get that flat game,” Olson said, pausing to act out knocking on wood. “I feel that our team has each other’s backs enough that we are going to keep that positive influx going.”