MILL CREEK — Two of the top pitchers in the area squared off in a battle of unbeaten Wesco 4A powers Tuesday afternoon, and they didn’t disappoint.
Lake Stevens’ Sara Johnson and Jackson’s Iyanla Pennington matched each other pitch-for-pitch until the latter came up with the biggest hit of the day, a walk-off two-run double in the bottom of the ninth inning, to give the Timberwolves a 2-1 victory in a rematch of last year’s 4A Northwest District championship game.
“Well I wasn’t really thinking,” Pennington said about walking up to the plate with the game on the line. “I was just trying to hit the ball so maybe we could get one run and then just keep going into more innings, but I mean it ended up good in the end.”
Pennington stepped up to the plate with runners on second and third and one out and the Vikings trailing 1-0. Even with first base open, Lake Stevens decided to pitch to the Coastal Carolina University-bound junior.
“We talked a little bit about putting her on,” Vikings coach Sarah Hirsch said. “She’s the one kid that could beat you, and we knew it. And we thought based on her last at-bat we could throw her something that maybe we could get her chasing, because we knew that she’d come up aggressive with a chance to win it.”
That risk didn’t pay off, and Jackson’s star, who’s nicknamed “Ice”, proved she had some running through her veins as she delivered in the clutch.
“I just felt really confident if she got a pitch to hit she was gonna get a hit,” Timberwolves coach Kyle Peacocke said.
The hit was just the second allowed all day by Johnson, both doubles to Pennington.
It seemed like the first team to find a way to scratch across a run would pick up the victory, and Lake Stevens struck first.
Due to tiebreaker rules, both team’s started with a runner on second base after the eighth. The Vikings took advantage of the rule, moving the runner to third on a sacrifice bunt, then getting a run across on an RBI groundout by senior Avery Henderson. But the one-run advantage wasn’t quite enough.
“Both (Johnson and Pennington) are two of the best pitchers in the state of Washington,” Peacocke said. “It was just gonna come down to either a mistake by one side, or obviously the international tiebreaker rule, which changes everything.
“Anytime you beat Lake Stevens or Monroe it feels good,” he added. “We know that it’s gonna come down to the district tournament, probably pretty much between the same two or three teams. So this is round one and it feels good, but we’ve still got a long way to go.”
Pennington struck out 16 batters while going the distance and allowing two hits, three walks and an unearned run, extending her streak of consecutive innings without allowing an earned run to start the season to 54. She also went 2-for-4 at the plate with a pair of doubles and two RBI.
“Ice is amazing,” Hirsch said. “Today I thought she looked spot on, man. I mean she looked great, she threw well. … It’s always gonna be like this when we play them.”
Johnson, a Towson University signee, recorded 14 strikeouts while allowing two hits, five walks, and two runs, one earned, over 8 1/3 innings.
The victory is the second straight for Jackson (10-0 overall, 4-0 Wesco 4A) over Lake Stevens (7-1, 3-1) dating back to last year’s district championship.
“They’re already fired up,” Hirsch said about her team’s chance to get one back against the Timberwolves on May 1 in Lake Stevens.
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