Hawks eliminated by Bearcats

Mountlake Terrace finished the year with its best-ever league and overall record, but the Hawks ran into some bad luck at the 4A District 1 softball tournament.

In its first round game against eventual district champion Marysville-Pilchuck, Mountlake Terrace had some breakdowns that resulted in a 3-2 loss and sent the Hawks into the losers’ bracket, where they put together back-to-back victories over Kamiak and Stanwood.

But Monroe, the Western Conference North Division’s No. 1 seed, edged Mountlake Terrace 1-0 in a winner-to-state/loser-out game May 24 at Sky River Park in Monroe.

“It was a tense back and forth game with a lot of emotion and unfortunately somebody’s got to take a loss,” Stewart said. “Monroe’s a great team. I thought our kids battled hard.”

Earlier in the day, junior pitcher Kori Seidlitz pitched a no-hitter to lead Mountlake Terrae to a 1-0 victory over Stanwood. Natarah Balderson sacrifice fly in the bottom of the seventh was the game-winning hit.

Seidlitz then allowed only four hits against the Bearcats, almost matching the performance of Monroe’s Jordan Birch, who limited the Hawks to a pair of hits.

“A lot of the credit has to go to Kori,” Stewart said. “She was phenomenal.”

Mountlake Terrace finished the season 18-7 overall and was 14-2 in the Western Conference South Division.

The Hawks rebounded from its first round loss and beat Wesco South Division rival Kamiak 5-1 to advance to the second day of the tournament, which was postponed a day due to problems with the fields, which were unplayable on Thursday. Amanda Kristjanson drove in a pair of runs for Mountlake Terrace

“We had some mental and physical breakdowns during that first game with Marysville,” Stewart said. “You just can’t do that in the district tournament. But I was so proud of the girls. Obviously, it’s a hard situation. You lose a close game. You turn around and play again. I’m proud of how they responded against Kamiak.

“We had to bounce back the next day and play a really good Stanwood team.”

The Hawks graduate only two players but the two, Stephanie McLauchlan and Megan Runkel, played integral roles on and off the field for the team.

In terms of leadership, McLauchlan and Runkel did “one of the most outstanding jobs I’ve witnessed in the 25 years I’ve coached,” Stewart said. “They’re going to be very hard to replace. They’re the glue that kept the team together. They kept their teammates on task and made my job very easy.”

Mountlake Terrace will return both Seidlitz and catcher Kayla Watson. The Hawks have advanced to the postseason 11 out of the last 12 seasons.

3A DISTRICT TOURNAMENT: Lynnwood and Meadowdale both lost two games on May 13 at Janicki Fields in Sedro-Woolley. The Royals opened with a 4-0 loss to Mount Vernon and then fell 11-1 to Ferndale. The Mavericks lost 9-1 to Everett and then dropped a 3-0 game to Sedro-Woolley.