SHORELINE — Eager for payback for a lopsided loss to the Hawks early in the season, Shorecrest snapped the Mountlake Terrace softball team’s streak of six straight shutouts.
The three-time defending league champions downed the Hawks 7-3 Monday night at Shorecrest High School in a matchup of teams battling for second place in the Wesco 4A South Division.
“Shorecrest is a great program,” Hawks coach Kim Stewart said. “If you’re going to get them, you’ve got to get them early. By the end of the year, they’re usually peaking.”
The seven runs were the most Mountlake Terrace (9-3 league, 11-3 overall) has allowed all year and the most Shorecrest has scored since the first week of the regular season.
“For us it was a pride game. We didn’t want them to think because they beat us before it was going to happen again,” Shorecrest shortstop Emily Gould said.
“Everyone was pumped for this game more than usual, a lot more than the game before … because we underestimated them.”
Shorecrest took advantage of two Mountlake Terrace fielding errors to build a 4-0 cushion through two innings.
In the bottom of the first, Casey Maehl singled and scored when Geneva Hale’s drive clipped the center fielder’s glove. Briana Davis followed with a sacrifice fly that scored Gould.
Sarah Berg doubled to lead off the second, advanced to third on an Emily Weinberg bunt and scored on Maehl’s squeeze bunt. Two batters later, Gould lofted a ball to center that was misplayed and Maehl scored from second base.
“You can’t make boo-boos against Shorecrest,” Stewart said. “You just can’t.”
Shorecrest pitcher Ashley Morrison retired 10 straight Mountlake Terrace batters until Lindsey Woodhouse reached base safely on a throwing error in the top of the fifth.
Ashley Skartvedt also reached safely on a Shorecrest miscue and Megan Watson was hit by a pitch to load the bases with one out.
Miranda Hanson then hit a grounder to Gould, who scooped up the ball and fired it home to prevent the run from scoring. Morrison fanned the next batter on three pitches to get out of the inning.
Mountlake Terrace had runners at second and third with one out in the sixth, but only pushed across one run on Alyson Yelanich’s grounder to short.
Gould quashed another potential Hawks rally in the seventh and preserved the win, diving to her right to snag Yelanich’s full-count line drive with two on and two out.
“We had definite chances to score,” Stewart said. “We had (runners) on second and third twice and the bases loaded once. At this point of the season you need hits in those situations.”
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