MONROE
Jackson ended Shorewood’s run in the 4A District 1 playoffs May 19, but the Thunderbirds still concluded their most successful season in six years.
Jackson ended Shorewood’s season 9-1 in the consolation bracket May 19 at Sky River Park in Monroe. Shorewood got into the playoffs by beating Jackson 2-0 May 8, handing the Timberwolves their first league loss of the season.
In the first round of districts, Monroe beat the T-birds 1-0 behind a masterful pitching performance by Jordan Birch, but Shorewood rebounded with a 2-1 win over Mountlake Terrace.
Shorewood lost a pair of one-run games to Terrace during the regular season but got a victory when it counted most. The consolation bracket win was the first playoff win for Shorewood since 2001.
“It’s really nice to see everything pay off,” said Robyn Morton, a Shorewood senior co-captain and catcher. “I knew coming into the season we could do this.”
Shorewood took a 1-0 lead in the fourth without the benefit of a hit. Pitcher Olivia Jacobs led off with a walk and moved to second when Terrace pitcher Lindsay Cook hit Kayla McCarthy. Maddy Golden pinch-hit and laid down a bunt but Cook’s throw to first was high and Jacobs raced home.
The T-birds added another run in the fifth. Jacobs rapped a two-out single and Kayla McCarthy’s fly ball to left fell to the ground after left fielder McKenzie Dessin and center fielder Andrea Clancy collided.
With runners at first and second and Caitlin Forinash batting, McCarthy tripped while getting back to the bag at first. She drew a throw from catcher Kayla Watson and got hung up in a rundown. Meanwhile, Jacobs began sprinting for home and scored before McCarthy was tagged out. McCarthy was later called safe after the umpires conferred because one of the infielders obstructed her while she was in the pickle. Forinash struck out but the damage was done.
The Hawks nearly tied it in the bottom of the seventh, after a one-out single by Megan Runkel and a pair of two-out singles by Amy Hansen and Andrea Clancy. Clancy’s hit fell out of the glove of diving Shorewood right fielder Matreya Vanous and scored Runkel. But Vanous recovered and alertly threw to third to nail Hansen to end the game.
Jacobs scattered seven hits, struck out three and walked one, and the T-birds played flawless defense for the second game in a row.
“Olivia is doing great,” catcher Robyn Morton said. “Her rise ball and change-up are pretty much what we live on.”
In the opener, Monroe scored its lone run in the bottom of the first inning after Birch and Kayla Wangner slapped one-out singles. The two runners moved up a base after Jacobs was called for an illegal pitch for toeing the rubber, putting the ball in her glove, and then taking it out before throwing the ball.
“It was the proper call,” Shorewood coach Tom Rizzuto said. “Unfortunately it cost us a game-winning run.”
Catcher Briar Stanley followed with a sacrifice fly to center that scored Birch.
That’s all the support that Birch would need. She struck out 16 Shorewood batters, making it look easy. The T-birds resorted to trying to coax walks out of Birch by squaring around to bunt and pulling their bats back, but Birch never issued a free pass. Jacobs, who singled up the middle in the fourth to break up Birch’s perfect game, was the only baserunner for the T-birds.
“She was everything we figured she would be,” Rizzuto said of Birch.
Despite the loss, Shorewood played a much better game against Monroe than it did in March, when the Bearcats won 11-0.
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