Snohomish Little League softball two wins from World Series

Published 9:51 am Monday, July 20, 2026

The Snohomish Little League 12U All Stars softball team, known as “Team Washington” for the duration of the Little League regionals in San Bernardino, Calif. for the next few days, took down Oregon 2-0 in quarterfinal action on Sunday night.

Washington, led by an emphatic 14-strikeout, one-hit shutout from ace pitcher Maddie Locke, held Oregon to a 1-for-19 night. Oregon, represented by Hermiston Little League, only saw three runners reach scoring position for the whole game, two of whom came in the bottom of the sixth and final inning. But with two runners in scoring position in Oregon right fielder Blakely Noland and left fielder Emeree Seewer looking to tie it up late, Locke delivered three straight strikes to walk off a strong shutout.

“(Catcher) Harlow Knisley and Maddie Locke were just on the same page all day as a battery,” assistant coach Drew Locke told the Herald over the phone. “Harlow was catching everything, hitting spots, Maddie came through, it was really fun to watch.”

The win marked Snohomish’s fourth shutout of July, including state action, putting the team just two wins away from the Little League World Series with a 3 p.m. date against Idaho set for Tuesday on ESPN+.

If Snohomish wins that game, it will be in Thursday’s championship game on ESPN for the right to go to the Little League World Series. If the All Stars lose, they will be on ESPN on Wednesday at 2:15 p.m., needing another win in the consolation bracket to get back to the final.

On Sunday, however, the future was irrelevant.

It was all about getting through each out to nurse the 2-0 lead the team built in the first inning.

Second baseman Jaliyah Wright (1-for-2, run) singled to center after taking two balls to start the game. Two batters and an out later, third baseman Maddie Tawney (RBI) brought Wright home on a sacrifice fly, with second baseman Jocelynn Day reaching third on the play.

Day went on to score on the next at-bat thanks to the only Oregon error of the game.

“We always say, like ‘Hey if we can get two or three runs early, it’s gonna make Maddie’s job a lot easier,” Drew Locke said. “Getting on the board in the first inning, that was such a good sign for our team. We hadn’t played in over a week.”

Maddie Locke, daughter of former University of Washington pitcher Danielle Lawrie, then went to work, allowing her only hit of the game on the second batter. She went on to retire two in a row with strikeouts to get out of the inning.

The day before the game, Drew Locke said the team had a tough practice on account of the nerves of this stage. Lawrie, who has been in plenty of pressure cooker situations in the sport, spoke to the team on gameday.

“’It’s the same softball game; it’s nothing different. You’re throwing a ball, you’re hitting with a bat, you’ve got gloves. The stage is a little bigger, but it’s still the same game,’” Drew Locke said of Lawrie’s pep talk. “Those girls took that speech, and they ran with it.”

In the second, Maddie Locke walked two, but found three more Ks. The third featured three strikeouts, including three straight strikes swinging on one out. Three groundouts and three Ks spelled the end of the fourth and fifth innings, respectively. Meanwhile, Oregon pitcher Mia Christianson was keeping Snohomish off the base path entirely, striking out nine hitters en route to a one-hit, one-earned run day.

The sixth and final frame was dicier, as Noland was the first Oregon hitter to reach base since the second inning due to a walk. After a strikeout from Maddie Locke to put Oregon on its final out, the umpire ruled catcher’s interference on Snohomish to move Noland into scoring position. The call wasn’t challengeable, according to Drew Locke.

A walk drawn by left fielder Preslee Bissinger loaded the bases.

Maddie Locke had traffic on the path for the first time in ages, but only needed one out to secure the win. She delivered a first-pitch ball, then two strikes looking. With a 1-2 count, the ace went for the kill with a heater down Broadway to force a game-clinching strikeout swinging.

Snohomish managed the win despite not putting a runner on base in the final five frames — a feat powered by a solid defensive effort with only one error.

“We’re two wins away from heading to (The Little League World Series in) North Carolina, and if the girls play the way that they did today, we have a really good shot at doing it,” Drew Locke said.