Monroe baseball survives and advances in state opening round

Published 11:38 pm Tuesday, May 19, 2026

MONROE — The ball had barely left Thade Highfill’s hand, and the game was already over.

The Enumclaw sophomore needed just one more out in the bottom of the seventh to strand Monroe with the bases loaded and send the 3A State Opening Round matchup to extras on Tuesday. However, right as he delivered a 1-1 pitch to Monroe junior Mike Enrico, the home plate umpire called a balk. A slight knee twitch before the delivery likely prompted the call.

The runners advanced, a run scored and the No. 15 seed Bearcats (15-8) moved on to Round 2 with a 1-0 walk-off win over the No. 18 seed Hornets (13-12). It marked Monroe’s second consecutive 1-0 walk-off win after it clinched the program’s first state berth since 2023 during a District 1 3A consolation game against Stanwood this past Saturday.

Enrico chucked his bat down the first base line as his brother Joe Enrico, also a junior, jogged in for the winning run from third. The Bearcats dugout flooded to meet them both, jumping up and down in a group that migrated all the way to the backstop. Monroe coach Connor Thompson stood behind third base with both hands on his head.

“Not a very popular way to end a baseball game, for anybody,” Thompson said. “… We seem to find a really fun way of just hitting the balls really hard right at people, right? So hard way to end a baseball game, but in my opinion, we deserve to win that game just because we did all the right stuff.”

That started with senior Caleb Campbell on the mound. The Gonzaga commit allowed just three hits and one walk, striking out five in a complete-game effort. Enumclaw did not record its second hit until the seventh inning, and it put a runner in scoring position just four times. Thompson also heaped praise on Campbell’s battery mate, Joe Enrico, who made several key blocks and also threw out a runner attempting to steal third in the third inning.

Gutting out two consecutive single-run, walk-off wins required the Bearcats to band together as one, and they took that literally between the two games. Picking up a tradition from the last time the team reached state three years ago, every player bleached his hair ahead of Tuesday’s game. So did Thompson.

The pregame lineup for the national anthem looked like a mid-2000s Eminem look-alike contest. Will the real Slim Shady please stand up?

“No state appearance over the last couple years, so I think the guys wanted it more than ever this year,” Campbell said about the hair change. “It’s nice to see that everybody participated, and it kind of goes the same way in the dugout. Everyone’s loud, everyone’s kind of behind the team, and that’s great.”

Ascending to the head coaching role this season, Thompson has led Monroe to the second round of the state tournament. The last time the program advanced further was a run to the quarterfinals in 1978. The Bearcats will have a tough out in No. 2 seed Kennewick standing in their way on Saturday, but they’ll be looking to make history in what Thompson has described as a “rollercoaster” of a season.

“Our record was good, but the amount of teams that we battled against, even (the non-league) teams that we just let some games get away from us late,” Thompson said. “It just kind of showed the toughness of our team, and that’s something I value heavily, like Joe (Enrico) right here. …

“That’s what I love about all my players is like, can we be tough? Can we deal with, ‘Hey, maybe we didn’t get a call we wanted. Maybe we didn’t score the run, but hey, can we keep our mind right? Can we do it the next time?’ And they’ve done a wonderful job of that, just staying level.”

The decisive final half-inning started with Joe Enrico’s one-out double down the third base line. He took a pitch low before smacking Monroe’s third hit of the night.

“(Thompson) was telling me right before my at-bat, ‘Just be early, and get on time,’” Enrico said.

The Hornets intentionally walked Campbell, and junior Adam Manke grounded into a fielder’s choice up the middle, just narrowly beating out the potential double play to keep the inning alive with runners at the corners. Enumclaw intentionally walked senior AJ Welch to load the bases. Three pitches later, the game was over.

Hornets coach Jamey Ingersoll walked out to protest the call, objecting to the umpire making it in that situation, but he was promptly ejected. Ingersoll had protested two other calls on the bases earlier in the game, successfully overturning one of them, but there would be no change. The Bearcats would be moving on.

The Enrico brothers and Campbell each recorded one hit, with Campbell also walking twice. Enumclaw junior Russell Zimmer allowed just one hit and three walks across his five-inning start.

Campbell needed just six pitches to get out of the first inning, retiring each of the first two batters on the first pitch before sophomore Kannius Alva lined out to shortstop. He allowed a single in the second inning, but stranded the runner with back-to-back strikeouts on full counts.

“I went to the dugout, and coach says to me, he’s like, ‘Stop dancing around people,’” Campbell said. “Like, ‘They’re putting the ball in play soft, just go at them. Go fastball until two strikes and make them hit it,’ and I mean, they finally did in the seventh inning with two outs, but yeah, the approach was just let them keep beating the ball into the ground and trust your defense. My defense was absolutely fantastic today.”

Mike Enrico worked a walk to lead off the bottom of the second, and junior Gavin Prescott bunted him over to second, but neither of the next two batters could advance him further. The Hornets put two runners in the fourth on when Highfill reached on an infield error, but Campbell notched a strikeout to end the frame.

Prescott walked on four pitches in the bottom of the fourth, and was granted second after the fourth ball got lodged in the backstop. He stole third on the first pitch of the next at-bat, but a couple of groundouts to short ultimately left him there with no score.

Campbell pitched a 1-2-3 fifth inning by inducing three groundouts, and he reached on an infield error in the bottom of the frame. After fouling two bunt attempts, Campbell fouled off six more pitches before finally driving the ball in play on the 12th pitch of the at-bat.

“Foul off pitches, make the pitcher work,” Campbell said. “And I think it showed because he got tired. You could kind of see his body language. I think I fouled off the fifth one and I watched him sigh. I’m like, ‘I’m winning this at-bat in his head right now,’ and all it took was just a ground ball in play.”

Manke seemed to put two runners on with one out after the attempted putout appeared to pull the first baseman off the bag, but upon Ingersoll’s appeal, the safe call was overturned. Zimmer notched a full-count strikeout to end the inning. Through five, each team had just one hit.

“Just be on top of the ball,” Joe Enrico said about how the team can kickstart its offense. “You’re getting under a lot of baseballs, just focusing on staying on top of the ball.”

The Bearcats will try to take advantage of fortuitous hops off their bats playing on a dirt field against Kennewick this weekend, where an upset win against the Lions would mean a second game on Saturday against the winner of No. 7 O’Dea and No. 10 Mountain View.

“We’re going to come back, ready to work (during practice on Wednesday),” Campbell said. “Obviously, there’s stuff we can work on. That’s apparent, and if we come back lazy, it’s going to show this weekend. We got a (potential) doubleheader, so it’s going to be tough. I think it’s a good opportunity though. I think we’re really excited for it.”