Stanwood softball slugs past Kennewick into 3A state semis

Published 8:44 pm Friday, May 22, 2026

LACEY — The situation could not get much more pivotal for Taylor Almanza as Stanwood softball faced Kennewick in the 3A state quarterfinals at Regional Athletic Complex on Friday.

Bases loaded, full count with two outs in the bottom of the second, a strike would send both teams back to the dugout tied 0-0. When it comes to the state tournament, a missed opportunity like often makes the difference between winning and losing, no matter the inning.

Fortunately for Stanwood, its lone senior did not miss. With a single up the middle, Almanza drove in two runs and advanced to second on the throw home.

“That’s our senior!” The Stanwood dugout chanted. “That’s our senior!”

As coach Patrick Ryan put it after the game: “She did her job.”

Keeping the inning alive and building a 2-0 lead, Almanza left the door open for junior Addi Anderson to smack a two-run base hit of her own, and for junior Jordan Rancourt to belt a three-run homer as the No. 6 seed Spartans (21-4) took a 7-0 lead en route to an 11-8 win against the No. 14 seed Lions (16-11).

That second-inning rally, which was much-needed given Kennewick’s pushback at the end, represented the culmination of a season’s worth of work navigating different pitch speeds at the plate.

“We went with an adjustment of going 50-50, and taking away our strides so we were just seeing the ball and starting our backside,” Ryan said. “We talk about it every day, and I felt like we can trust that and the kids bought into it, and they really did a great job. We talk about a bunch of different terminology, but they did a good job executing the adjustment we were looking to do.”

For the first time in program history, Stanwood advanced to the state semifinals.

“It feels great,” Almanza said. “I think this team has felt more connected than past teams. … I don’t feel older than any of them or, I don’t know, we all get along. There’s not really little friend groups. It’s just one big friend group.”

Almanza and junior Jemma Lopez each went 2-for-4 at the plate with two RBI and one run scored, while Anderson and Rancourt each drove in three runs. Anderson pitched a complete game in the circle, allowing 11 hits and five walks while striking out six. For the Lions, senior Kailey Palmer went 3-for-4, and fellow senior Kadence Sparhawk drove in two runs.

Friday’s win was meaningful for the Stanwood vets beyond the obvious playoff implications. The last time Stanwood was in this spot, it ended in a disappointing stunner. The top seed in last year’s state tournament, the Spartans reached the quarterfinals for the first time since 2010, but the run was cut short with a 5-4 loss to the No. 8 seed Garfield. Exactly a year later, following a 5-3 win against No. 11 Kelso in the second round, they broke through to where no team in program history has been before.

Rancourt shook off the notion that there’s less pressure this season without owning the top seed. In fact, she felt the opposite.

“I think there’s definitely more pressure this year because we have our younger juniors stepping into our bigger roles,” Rancourt said, referring to Stanwood’s four different starters from last season. “So I think this year, our motto has been, ‘Build a foundation,’ so this is just definitely new for all of us, but we’re definitely happy where we’re at.”

After Almanza opened the scoring at 2-0, Anderson found herself in a similar spot two batters later: Bases loaded, full count, two outs. This time, the junior lined a double right over third base to drive in two more runs and extend the lead to 4-0. Following a Kennewick change in the circle, Rancourt needed just two pitches to clear the bases entirely.

Rancourt took the first pitch for a strike, then blasted a hanging changeup over the left field fence to give the Spartans a commanding 7-0 lead. Stanwood had scouted the new pitcher, who was one of the Lions’ usual starters, so Rancourt felt confident in her plan stepping to the plate.

Kennewick answered back in the third with an RBI single from junior Bailee Haug, and sophomore Addie Logan followed that with a long fly ball to left that just barely hooked foul in an extremely close call. The final call was delayed enough that the Lions dugout had already spilled out to meet Logan at home plate, assuming it to be a two-run homer. Shortly after resetting, much to Kennewick’s chagrin, Rancourt caught Haug stealing second to end the frame.

“I think with that home run, they started to really build their momentum,” Rancourt said. “And once we found out that was foul and then (with) me throwing that girl out, I think that really just shut them down. That’s what we needed for our team.”

The Spartans pushed it to 10-1 in the fourth, as Anderson led off the frame with a solo homer to center before Lopez hit a two-run double with two outs. The Lions pushed back again with three consecutive hits to open the fifth, including an RBI double from senior Mayce Davis. Sparhawk brought her in with a sacrifice bunt, and Haug roped an RBI double to left field to cut it to 10-4.

After freshman Mads Archer extended it to 11-4 in the bottom of the fifth with an RBI single, Palmer brought it back to 11-5 by scoring on an infield error in the sixth, but Lopez ended the inning with an unassisted double play, catching a lineout and tagging second base.

Kennewick made one last push in the seventh, rallying for three more runs and even bringing the tying run to the plate with two runners on and two outs. However, Almanza made an over-the-shoulder running catch into shallow right field to get it to two outs, and Davis sent a fly ball deep to center, falling just short of the fence into Stanwood sophomore Laylah Cosek’s glove to end the game.

“In the last inning, I really felt us playing for each other,” Almanza said. “Calming each other down, telling each other like, ‘We’re fine.’”

Ryan expected a big fight from the Lions, who upset the No. 3 seed Peninsula 13-7 in the second round earlier on Friday. But he also expected his group to hang on. Now, he’ll look to coach them into the 3A state championship game, with No. 2 seed Mount Spokane — who defeated the Spartans 14-1 in the consolation bracket last year — standing in the way in the semifinals on Saturday morning.

“(It’s) fresh in my mind,” Ryan said. “We’re just going to talk about our game plan, and right now everybody’s been here this long. So our mentality, we’ve always talked about, is just one pitch at a time, and then we’re going to really talk about that tonight. Go over our game plan and come in and execute just playing Spartan softball.”