Jackson triumphs over Marysville-Pilchuck in district softball championship game

MONROE

Erin Feeney didn’t want to wait any longer.

With two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning, Feeney singled into center field to score Megan Cooley and give Jackson an 11-10 victory over Marysville-Pilchuck — ending the Timberwolves’ thrilling comeback in a District 1 championship game that needed an extra inning to be decided.

M-P jumped ahead 6-0 before Jackson even got a chance to bat. Despite that early hole, the Timberwolves persevered and rallied to score four runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to extend the playoff game into the night.

“You got 14 girls that didn’t give up,” Jackson head coach Mike Moran said. “Every single one of them contributed to what we just did.”

With daylight running out and the game in danger of being suspended at a field with no lights, Jackson showed why it is now 23-0 this season.

After a walk and an error, the Timberwolves had runners at first and second with no outs. After a strike out, a controversial fielder’s choice advanced the runners to second and third. M-P coach KT Allyn went out to talk with the umpires about a possible interference call on a Jackson baserunner, saying she bumped into the Tomahawks’ second baseman. Had the call gone M-P’s way, the hitter would have been ruled out and the runners would have had to stay put.

But the umpire didn’t see it Allyn’s way. The runners advanced and then Feeney came up with a clutch hit that won Jackson the game and got the Timberwolves the first-place trophy. Both teams advance to the state tournament that starts May 28.

“I just wanted to get a hit,” Feeney said. “I wasn’t trying to do anything special.”

Feeney finished the game 4-for-5 with five RBI.

“I was very confident,” Moran said. “She knows what she’s doing.”

“I’m feeling great,” Feeney said. “I love our team so much because we can come back from anything. … It’s been a great season and we want to stay undefeated.”

With the game in danger of being called or suspended due to darkness, two potential solutions were discussed by the tournament director. They were suspending the game and finishing it another day or flipping a coin to determine the winner if the game was still tied after eight innings.

“We were talking about that,” said Moran, who didn’t like the idea of not finishing the game. “M-P wouldn’t have wanted that either.”

Fortunately, it wasn’t necessary.

Cooley was a perfect 3-for-3 with two walks and two runs scored, including the game-winning one. She was a big part of both of Jackson’s big four-run innings. She got on base early in the second with a single and led off the seventh with a walk.

“We’re here for seven innings,” Moran said. “There were some clutch hits in there. Congratulations to them. They stayed together.”

To the casual observer, the game looked out of reach early. The Tomahawks piled on six runs in the top of the first, thanks largely to a grand slam by Morgan Martinis that got the M-P crowd pumped.

“She came through,” Allyn said. “Helped us set the tone. That was awesome.”

M-P (19-3 overall) led until the seventh inning.

Sacha Clow had two big hits for Marysville, an RBI double in the top of the fourth and drove in two runners on a suicide squeeze bunt in the sixth. The bunt went just beyond the reach of Jackson’s pitcher, Lindsay Robison, and with both middle infield positions covering the corner bases no one was there to field the ball.

M-P’s Jessica Christensen went 2-for-4 with a walk and an RBI and senior Megan Rollings had a couple key base hits in the game.

The Tomahawks chased Jackson’s starter in the first inning, after they scored their six runs with only one out.

“Our bats were hot on Tuesday and we wanted to continue to do that today,” Allyn said.

“M-P is a very, very, very good team,” Moran said. “That’s the best hitting team you’re going to see.”

The Tomahawks also will be going to state, after missing the tournament last year.

“They have a choice,” Allyn said. “They can choose to wallow in the loss or look forward to state. They said, ‘OK coach, we’re going to head home and be better tomorrow.’”

This was the first district championship for Moran, who has spent nine years as the coach at Jackson. He takes the same philosophy that has been working all season for the Timberwolves to the state tournament.

“This is a business meeting,” Moran said. “Now state is another business meeting.

“We’ll get down there and see what happens.”

David Krueger writes for the Herald in Everett.