Snohomish Little League 12U softball wins state

Published 10:10 am Wednesday, July 15, 2026

The Snohomish Little League 12U All Stars softball team was inspired.

Last summer, they watched many players they knew from the nearby Mill Creek Little League All Stars squad advance to the Little League World Series, winning the district, state and regional tournaments in the process. Mill Creek, which went on to attain the titles “Washington” and “Northwest” at regionals and the World Series, respectively, showed a solid Snohomish squad that making it onto national television was not so far away.

They just had to work for it.

“For the last 12 months, they have been working their butts off to get to this point where we’re able to go compete down in San Bernardino,” said assistant coach Drew Locke, whose daughter Maddie is an ace pitcher in the circle for Snohomish. “So far, so good.”

Indeed, a year later, Snohomish is well on its way to replicating Mill Creek’s success. They won a tough district, then recovered from losing to the Woodinville Majors All Stars at state with six straight victories last week to win the tournament and take on the mantle of “Team Washington” at the Northwest Regional in San Bernardino, Calif., starting Saturday. The winner of the six-state regional, including Colorado, Alaska, Montana, Oregon and Idaho, will move on to the August Little League World Series.

Snohomish, powered by many players who have been working together for years now, has done it by committee.

Pitcher Maddie Locke has been a standout on both ends. Locke, who slings well above 50 mph on her fastball according to her dad, has notched 99 Ks in 55 innings with a 0.66 ERA and a .846 batting average with four homers. Third baseman Maddie Tawney is hitting .531 while first baseman Avery Calamusa is up to two homers with a .433 average.

Second baseman and pitcher Jaliyah Wright has provided solid relief in the circle, striking out 18 hitters in 10 innings with a 1.20 ERA while smashing two homers from the plate.

Snohomish took down the same Mill Creek squad they had been inspired by twice en route to winning the district, outscoring them 8-2 across both games. Locke allowed just six hits and picked up 19 strikeouts in 12 total innings of the two matchups.

Riding the high of that game, a 2-0 loss to Woodinville to start Snohomish’s run at state was a shock to the system. Locke allowed just one hit, but four errors let the Majors score two runs in a shutout win.

Snohomish took it as motivation in the losers’ bracket, rattling off a 14-0 win and a 12-0 win in two days. Three more wins in as many days led Snohomish to a rematch with Woodinville, with the All Stars needing two consecutive wins over a team that had just beaten them in order to win state.

Snohomish kept the good times rolling, leveraging an 11-for-28 with a homer from Locke (3-for-3, 2 runs, 3 RBI) for an 8-2 win last Saturday. In the decisive game on Sunday, Snohomish scored four runs in the fifth to win 6-4 with clutch triples from Wright and Locke powering the state-clinching win.

“It was really awesome to see them all grow, both individually and especially as a team throughout the week,” Drew Locke said. “Bonding at the hotels… grinding out game after game…

“Once Saturday came, our parent support group, our fans, they had the girls so hyped up that, I mean, I looked in the dugout and it was a completely different group of girls. There was no way they were losing those two games.”

The next day, the team went to the Blast Barn, an indoor batting cage facility in Snohomish. They saw Mill Creek’s three banners from 2025, a reminder of what Snohomish is trying to accomplish.

“Right when we walked in, we’re like, ‘See, this is where we’re going,’” Drew Locke said. “We already have two of these banners now. Now we’re going for that third one.”

As has been the case all spring and into the summer, Snohomish Little League is leaning on the community to get the team to California. While the players’ travel expenses to California are covered, the community has organized a GoFundMe page to help their families join them at the Northwest Regionals this weekend.

Earlier this year, it took thousands of dollars in donations and volunteer hours to help make the Snohomish Little League fields playable after the devastating floods in the region.

“It doesn’t go unnoticed,” Drew Locke said of the volunteer efforts. “We’re not going to regionals this week without our community supporting us this way.”

Visit this article on at heraldnet.com for the link to the softball team’s GoFundMe page.

Snohomish Little League 10U baseball team wins district

The Snohomish Little League 10U All Stars baseball team is off to the state tournament, becoming the second team in program history to reach that milestone by winning District 1 with a 5-0 win.

Snohomish won in a variety of ways, beating Granite Falls 18-8 to kick off its run at districts while grinding out games over Mukilteo and Alderwood before downing Pacific to win the tournament on July 9. The state tournament begins this Saturday at Northshore Athletic Fields in Woodinville, with a potential regional-bound champion to be crowned July 25-26.

First-year coach Joe Hardy says the blueprint for this type of success was laid out by Aaron Barstad, the coach of the 2024 team that last won districts. Part of that blueprint is getting real game reps in before districts kick off.

Hardy’s scrimmaged 10 times before the season began, bringing in competition from all over King County. He described the wealth of experiences as an “aha moment,” as the team won big, lost by 10, made comebacks and fell after jumping out to large leads all in those scrimmages.

“We saw everything,” Hardy said. “(Districts) is going to be nothing new.”

Center fielder Cannon Boyle (6 runs, 6 RBI) has stood out to Hardy for his hitting power, batting .500 through five district playoff games with three doubles and a triple. His defensive contributions are just as meaningful, as Hardy was impressed by Boyle’s ability to throw a runner out at first on a line drive hit to center during the tournament.

“You don’t see that very often at any level of baseball,” Hardy said.

Joshua Smith, meanwhile, is leading the team with eight runs scored to go with three RBI on a .556 batting average. Brayden Blakeway (.600, 6 runs, 3 RBI) and Tommy Tait (.500, 4 RBI) round out a strong order with seven RBI combined on efficient hitting.

On the mound, Henry Hardy leads the team with a 2-0 record and eight strikeouts, while Parks Weaver (7 K) and Jamison Malone (1.00 ERA) are each 1-0 during this undefeated run.

While the team emphasizes having fun and had a lake party to start the season, these All Stars have been practicing nearly seven days a week to reach this point.

“A lot of these families and kids sacrifice a good portion of their summer to spend two-and-a-half hours a day basically practicing,” Hardy said. “Their commitment paid off with a district championship.”

They’ll hope to join the 12U softball squad as state champs, starting their run this Saturday in Woodinville.