S ometimes perfection isn’t good enough.
Cory Mattson pitched a perfect game March 29 when she struck out 15 batters and didn’t allow a hit or a baserunner in a 10-0 victory over Shorewood. But afterwards Mattson, Everett High’s sophomore phenom, felt her effort was far from flawless.
She could have been sharper, more accurate, she told her coach.
“(Mattson) didn’t feel like she threw as good of a game as she’s capable of,” Everett head coach Kyle Peacocke said. “She’s kind of her own worst critic.”
It’s difficult to criticize much about the soft-spoken Mattson, who has followed up a solid freshman season (12-7, 0.86 earned-run average and 140 strikeouts) with a fantastic start to her sophomore year.
Mattson (7-1) already has tossed two perfect games (against Mariner on March 21 and then versus Shorewood) and she was one strike away from another March 28 against Edmonds-Woodway.
Also a tremendous hitter, Mattson has two home runs, three doubles, a triple and eight runs batted in through Everett’s first eight games.
On Wednesday, Mattson helped the young Seagulls (5-1 in division, 7-1 overall) defeat Kamiak 2-0 in a Western Conference South Division game in Mukilteo. She struck out 11 in a complete-game three-hitter and executed a perfect sacrifice bunt that helped score the winning run.
One key to Mattson’s pitching success is a nasty riseball. To a batter, it initially looks like a straight fastball. But as the pitch nears the plate the ball breaks sharply upward, seemingly defying gravity.
“It can go like way up to the backstop or up to the catcher’s head,” Mattson said of the pitch, which zooms up to 61 mph, about the same speed as her fastball.
Mattson – who also keeps hitters guessing with a curveball, a screwball and occasionally mixes in dropballs and changeups – learned to throw the riseball last year. She grips it like a curve, but uses a lower release point to essentially push the ball up through the strike zone.
Few batters have an answer.
“People are like, ‘Oh, god. Why did I swing at that?’ ” Everett catcher Claire Welly said. “It’s working really well this year.”
In fact, nearly everything is clicking for Mattson, who has 93 strikeouts and a 0.15 ERA. Mattson’s riseball is especially devastating, but she’s shown remarkable command over all her pitches. Incredibly, she’s allowed just one unintentional walk in 48 innings.
“It doesn’t seem like there’s any pitch (that) she’s timid to throw,” Welly said.
Mattson, who grew up in Everett and started pitching at age 9, never seeks the spotlight In fact, she rarely speaks up at all, leaving vocal leadership responsibilities to co-captains Welly, shortstop Jessica Carey and outfielder Raelyn Hawkinson, the team’s lone senior.
“She would rather have other girls on the team get the attention,” Peacocke said.
The Seagulls joke that Mattson’s calm, monotone speaking voice doesn’t really fit the season’s most exciting moments.
“Even if we’re winning like 10-zero,” Welly said, “she’s always like, (in a low, monotone voice) ‘Let’s go guys.’ “
But “when she does talk,” Welly added, “she says important things and gets to the point.”
Mattson’s calm demeanor helps her on the mound. Coaches and teammates said she never gets rattled – a trait that soothes a youthful Everett squad with four freshmen and four sophomores.
Just don’t confuse quiet with weak or nonchalant.
“I would never ever say Cory Mattson isn’t competitive,” Everett assistant coach Ken Hudson said.
“If and when people do get on base, she gets even better,” Peacocke said. “… She’s incredibly dedicated. Basically, softball is her life.”
Mattson plays on coach Margo Leiter’s Lake Breeze select team, which has had several players move on to play Division-I softball, including Everett grad Amy Hudson, a sophomore who plays for Central Michigan University. Mattson hopes to follow in the D-I footsteps of Hudson and Victoria “Torie” Coury, a former Seagulls star now playing at Washington.
“I’d like to play softball for as long as I can,” Mattson said.
While Mattson is known for her perfect and near-perfect showings on the mound, she provided an ideal answer when asked which college she’d like to play for.
“Anywhere that’d take me,” Mattson said.
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