Snohomish baseball falls in district championship

Published 10:10 pm Saturday, May 16, 2026

EVERETT — Mount Vernon baseball started to show some cracks.

The reigning 3A State Champions held a 2-1 lead over Snohomish in the fifth inning of the District 1 3A Championship at Everett Memorial Stadium on Saturday, but after Snohomish junior Blake Kendall reached on a fielding error and senior Landon Klein got hit by a pitch, junior Breckin Davisson came to the plate with an opportunity to capitalize on the Mount Vernon mistakes.

All it took was one pitch. Sitting fastball, Davisson got what he wanted right away and laced an RBI single to left, scoring Kendall to tie it 2-2 as Klein advanced to third.

“I was thinking a double there, too,” Davisson said. “I knew our runners would get in if I hit a ball hard, so that’s what I did.”

Snohomish could not take the lead, but between innings, a voice from the dugout could be heard saying: “Brand new ballgame!”

The district title remained up for grabs, but ultimately it was the top-seeded Bulldogs (22-1) that rallied for four runs in the fifth en route to a 7-4 victory over the No. 2 seed Panthers (18-5).

Snohomish could not take the championship away from Mount Vernon, which defended its title from 2025, but the Panthers proved to be capable of going toe-to-toe with the best the state has to offer.

“I definitely think that we could have won this game, and that we are going to definitely go far (in the state tournament),” junior Ethan Green said. “… We may not have won this game, but I think we definitely have the ability to beat them the next time we play.”

Green went 1-for-1 in his lone plate appearance, driving in a run, while Davisson went 1-for-3 with one RBI, one run scored and a walk. Junior Trevor Vorderbruggen allowed six hits and one walk while striking out four across five innings.

Despite the loss, Snohomish already qualified for the state tournament for the second straight year after breaking a seven-year drought last season, when the Panthers picked up an opening round win at home before falling in Round 2. After reaching the district final this season, the program is still trending up.

“We performed all year. Boys have played hard,” Snohomish coach Nick Hammons said. “They played hard today. They competed. … Just clean (the mistakes) up a little bit, and we pitch, we play defense, we have timely hitting, we can beat anybody.”

The Panthers grabbed the first lead in the top of the first. Davisson got on base with a walk and senior Rider Walsh reached on a fielder’s choice, which eventually left them runners on the corners. Executing the double steal, Davisson managed to slide home right before an inning-ending strikeout to put Snohomish ahead 1-0.

“I saw him throw, and I saw him cut it off, and I knew I was going to have to slide around the bag and get around the catcher,” Davisson said.

However, the first two Bulldogs batters were each hit by a pitch, and senior Brady Collins brought one of them home with an RBI groundout to tie it in the bottom of the frame. Vorderbruggen settled in to retire two of the next three batters, and he went 1-2-3 in the second with two strikeouts, but Mount Vernon jumped ahead 2-1 in the third with an RBI single from senior Kaiden Anderson.

Davisson tied it in the fifth after a couple of Bulldog miscues, but Mount Vernon pulled ahead for good in the bottom of the frame. Senior Baird Brewer and Collins hit back-to-back singles before senior Bode Webb reached on an error to load the bases. Anderson ripped a two-run double to the left field corner, and junior Connor Swanson immediately followed up with a chopper to left to drive in another run. Junior Brady Peterson pushed it to 6-2 with a sacrifice bunt to cap the rally.

“We just made some mistakes,” Hammons said. “You can’t make mistakes like that against a team like Mount Vernon. Number one team in the state for a reason, and they’re going to capitalize on your mistakes.”

Before taking the field for the sixth, Hammons brought the team together around him, encouraging them to maintain composure and view the next two innings as an opportunity to do something special.

Senior Reve LeRoux led off the inning with a single up the middle, and after senior Chase Clark hit a single to put two runners on with two outs, Hammons picked Green to pinch hit with basically no warning. By the time he got subbed in, Green walked straight to the plate from the dugout without any swings in the on-deck circle. Hammons called Green one of the team’s six best bats, and they needed someone to step in with a good swing.

“I just kind of kept my mind flushed,” Green said. “Just went up there knowing I could hit the ball, and it just made it simple.”

After taking two balls and fouling a pitch off, Green ripped a liner into shallow right field, the ball bouncing off a fielder’s glove and falling to the turf as LeRoux came around to cut it to 6-3. The Bulldogs restored their four-run lead with an RBI single from Brewer in the bottom of the sixth, but Klein led off the top of the seventh with a single before stealing second and third, which allowed Walsh to bring him home with an RBI groundout.

The Panthers put two more runners on with two outs, but Swanson induced a flyout to end the game and secure back-to-back district titles for Mount Vernon.

“They’re resilient. They know what they have,” Hammons said of his squad. “They know their ability. They know they’re not out of any game regardless of the score. They just kept fighting. That’s just what you want to see from these kids, is that we talk about competition each and every day. When we do that in practice, it goes over to the game, and they just never gave up.”

As Snohomish awaits its state matchup, the players will focus on not letting Saturday’s loss affect their energy. After all, the Panthers anticipate a much deeper run for themselves in the state tournament this time around.

“I think if we come together as a team hitting-wise, and we’re firing on all cylinders, we’re going to be driving baseballs,” Davisson said. “And no team’s going to be able to stop us.”