EVERETT — Few high school softball teams in Wesco or District 1 have experienced the type of sustained success Snohomish has over the past decade.
The Panthers have racked up numerous league titles, district championship game appearances and state tournament berths during their run of excellence.
One thing that’s mostly eluded Snohomish over the years has been a victory in the district title game.
That victory wasn’t able to escape the grasp of the 2023 rendition of the program, though.
Skyla Bristol spun a two-hit shutout and top-seeded Snohomish bested third-seeded Mountlake Terrace 4-0 in the Class 3A District 1 championship showdown Thursday at Phil Johnson Ballfields.
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“Snohomish has struggled getting district titles, so this is a really huge win for us and a really big deal,” Panthers coach Patti Lande said. “I even got a little bit emotional about it. These are just some special kids and a special year. It feels great.”
The victory gave the Panthers their second win over their past seven district championship games. Snohomish is now 3-5 in district title matchups overall during a run of eight straight appearances.
“It’s definitely a win for the program,” Bristol said. “I can’t tell you the last time we won a district title. But for the nine seniors, everyone’s been working at it and we wanted to do it this year.”
Bridget Johnson’s RBI single in the second put Snohomish (20-3) up 1-0 and held up as the only run for most of the evening as Bristol and Terrace starter Ellie Gilbert kept both potent offenses quiet.
The Hawks (15-7) had chances to tie after putting a runner on second in the top of the fifth and sixth innings, but Bristol was able to escape unblemished.
Bristol led off the bottom of the sixth with a triple and scored on Avery Clark’s grounder. Evy Massena added a two-run triple just inside the line in left to go up 4-0.
Snohomish players celebrate during a game between Mountlake Terrace and Snohomish at Phil Johnson Ballfields in Everett, Washington on Thursday, May 18, 2023. Snohomish won, 4-0. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
“Just a clutch hit,” Lande said of Massena’s triple. “We all breathed a little bit easier after that one for sure. It was awesome.”
Lande said Bristol didn’t feel like she had her repertoire fully dialed in, but she still struck out 11, allowed only one walk and became one of just two pitchers to go the distance in a shutout against Terrace this season.
“The thing with Skyla is that she’s matured so much over the last few years,” Lande said. “She wasn’t feeling like she was giving her best stuff today. She was really trying, but sometimes that’s just the way it is for pitchers. The thing is this year she just fought through it. Her passion and things like that, you see her just screaming and yelling, she really gets the team going. She’s an incredible leader for this team.”
Gilbert pitched a complete game, allowed five hits and two walks, struck out three and held the Panthers to their second-lowest run total against a Wesco 3A opponent this season.
“A lot of kudos to Mountlake Terrace,” Lande said. “The coach (Shannon Rasmussen) did an incredible job with that team. They fought really hard. They’ve got some really good hitters. They never let me breathe easy at all. Their pitcher did a great job kind of keeping our bats at bay. We didn’t have a great hitting game, but I’m going to give kudos to that pitcher because we didn’t like what she was throwing.”
Both teams had already qualified for state.
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