MUKILTEO — When Gabriella Veighey stepped to the plate, the Kamiak junior just thought about putting the ball in play.
With two outs and a runner on third in the bottom of the 10th inning on Monday, tied 6-6 with Jackson, Veighey had an opportunity to win the game. The first baseman did not have a hit all day, but after grounding out and flying out in her first two at-bats against Jackson pitcher Allie Thomsen, Veighey felt excited. She knew she could make contact on her. Veighey struck out in her third at-bat, but her confidence did not waver.
Focusing on making contact, Veighey waited for the right pitch and launched it towards center field. The Kamiak base-runner, pitcher Synclair Mawudeku, immediately took off for home plate and crossed while the ball was still rising. The only thing deciding whether the game would end or move onto the 11th would be if the ball landed in grass or leather. As Veighey rounded towards second, she saw a Jackson outfielder looking “lost,” searching for the ball through sunlight.
“I got it,” Veighey thought. And she did.
The ball landed in front of the outfield wall, and the Vikings (7-3 overall, 2-1 league) secured the 7-6 walk-off win to tie the Timberwolves (5-5, 2-1) atop the Wesco 4A standings alongside Glacier Peak.
“I think a lot of the times people like to think they can just go up there and slam the ball,” said Veighey, who finished 1-for-5 with two RBI. “And that’s a lot of the reason that people strike out, kind of, and I think that my mindset was just hit the ball, and then I just did that.”
After squandering a 5-2 lead in the late innings, and going down 6-5 in the top of the 10th, the Vikings churned out a crucial league win. Kamiak had two players out with concussions and a handful of others recently returning from academic eligibility issues, so coach Ann Bradley was impressed with her team’s perseverance in the home win.
“Just grit, honestly,” Bradley said. “We’ve been known the last couple of times where we make an error and we just kind of deflate, and they’ve battled hard. They made too many errors today (3) — my team did, in my opinion — and so (we came) back and bounced back and said, ‘Yeah, they scored, but that doesn’t mean we’re done.’”
Three other Kamiak batters drove in runs besides Veighey: Senior outfielder Tyler Karabach (2-for-5, two RBI, one run), senior infielder Frances Famatiga (1-for-4, two RBI) and Mawudeku (3-for-4, one RBI, three runs). Mawudeku pitched all 10 innings, allowing 14 hits and one walk while striking out 11.
For Jackson, Thomsen (3-for-4, one RBI, two runs) starred both at the plate and in the circle, allowing eight hits and only three earned runs while striking out 11 in 9.2 innings pitched. Sophomore infielder Clara Stone (3-for-5, one RBI), junior infielder Reese Westman (3-for-5, two runs) and senior infielder Kiana Holden (2-for-6, one run) each had multi-hit days, but the Timberwolves left 13 runners on base compared to Kamiak’s five.
Jackson took an early 2-1 lead by the top of the third, but a four-run frame from Kamiak in the bottom half made it 5-2.
Sophomore outfielder Kate McBride (1-for-4, two runs) reached third base on a dropped fly ball, and Mawudeku drove her in with a single to left-center to tie it 2-2. Senior Emma ‘Chipper’ Stansfield (0-for-5, one run) reached on a dropped pop-up to shallow right field, and Karabach legged out an infield single to load the bases.
“Against a team like this, it’s still important to get whatever runs you can,” Mawudeku said. “Even if they’re making errors, it’s still important to just finish it.”
Veighey hit a sacrifice fly to right field to drive in her first of two go-ahead runs on the afternoon and make it 3-2, and Famatiga cleared the bases with a two-RBI single to center.
“I just made sure my head was on the ball and tried to make that adjustment,” Famatiga said. “So just adjusting to the pitcher, because I had confidence I would be able to.”
After that, Jackson’s defense locked down, and Thomsen pitched 1-2-3 innings in the fifth and sixth. That opened the window for the Timberwolves to tie things up. Stone and senior infielder Matea Lopez (1-for-4, 1 RBI) each drove a run across to cut it to 5-4, and Thomsen tied it 5-5 in the top of the seventh by scoring from third on a passed ball, ultimately forcing extra innings.
Jackson nearly took the lead in the top of the ninth when Elena Eigner laid down a bunt to try and bring in junior outfielder Mia Ediger (0-for-5) from third, but Kamiak’s defense successfully weeded her out with a rundown.
“We practiced that over and over,” Bradley said. “So to see that come to fruition was pretty cool.”
Jackson wound up taking a 6-5 lead the next inning after Lopez bunted and the put-out attempt at home was bobbled, but Bradley encouraged her side not to give up heading into the bottom of the 10th.
They didn’t.
With runners on second and third, Karabach grounded out but still managed to push a runner across the plate to tie it 6-6, and Veighey walked it off in the next at-bat.
“I don’t think our team has ever been so locked in, if that makes sense,” Veighey said. “We were all working together, like every single one of us did something in this game, and I think that’s what made it work the best. It wasn’t our loudest game, but it was our most-focused game.”
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