MONROE — The Mountlake Terrace softball team got a glimpse of what it is capable of when its hitters actually hit on Thursday.
The Hawks went for 13 hits and scored runs in every inning except the second and the seventh in a nonleague 10-5 victory over Monroe.
The biggest hit accounted for just one of the Hawks 10 runs, but it will be one that sophomore second baseman Hannah Wilcox never forgets. Wilcox drove an Alyssa Egan pitch over the fence for her first career home run in the bottom of the fifth inning.
“That was my first one, ever,” Wilcox said after the game. “It was amazing. I didn’t think it was going over, but when it did, I swear it was the best feeling ever.”
Mountlake Terrace coach Shannon Rasmussen said Wilcox showed a bit of her power in the team’s jamboree.
“The very first pitch in our jamboree, she turned and ripped on it her first at-bat and hit it over the fence, but it was foul,” Rasmussen said. “I talked to her after that and I said, ‘that was an awesome hit, great job.’ She has been seeing the ball great this year and finally was able to get a hold of the ball and hit it hard.”
For a young player such as Wilcox, the first home run often gives them confidence to know they can do it again.
“The first one that she hit over there, even though it was foul, she was pretty excited,” Rasmussen said. “She was like, ‘I didn’t know I could hit it over the fence.’ And so I think she is pretty excited about it.”
The moment of the night might have belonged to Wilcox, but she wasn’t the only one in the Hawks’ lineup that hit. Rasmussen said that her team had struggled with the bats early in the season, but has started to break through in the past two games.
“Our first two games, our bats were pretty quiet and we were kind of waiting on them to get ready,” Rasmussen said. “We’ve got a great lineup of hitters up-and-down. We’ve got a lot of girls that can make really good contact and can hit the ball really hard. We’ve been waiting for them to step up.
“Finally the last game that we played on Monday, we finally broke out and had a really big inning and so I was hoping it was going to carry over into this game and it definitely did.
Starting pitcher Maddy Kristjanson picked up her second win of the season, but she helped herself just as much at the plate, batting 4-for-5. Sammy Harter went 2-for-4 with two RBI and Wilcox was 2-for-3 with two runs scored.
The defensive play of the game belonged to Wilcox as well. Trailing 10-4, Lexi Trombley led off the inning for Monroe with a single to center field. The next batter, Bailey Berchack had an opportunity to put two runners on with nobody out and it looked like she would do just that with a liner toward right field. However, Wilcox made an leaping grab to rob Berchack of a hit and then turned it into a double play by throwing out runner Taylor Lowe, who had strayed too far from first base and couldn’t get back in time.
Instead of two on and nobody out, the Bearcats had two out and nobody on and that pretty much sealed their fate.
Monroe had its share of chances in the game, but could never put together a big inning. Trailing 3-0 in the bottom of the second inning, Rachael Delamare, Michaela Johnson and Kathleen Sundet hit three straight doubles, but the Bearcats managed just one run.
“You’ve got to stay with your competition,” Monroe coach Curt Eskeback said. “When they are hitting the ball, we have to match it and errors don’t help.”
The Bearcats committed five errors in the game.
Delamare led the Bearcats offensive attack, batting 4-for-4 with three doubles and two RBI.
Aaron Lommers covers prep sports for The Herald. Follow him on twitter @aaronlommers and contact him at alommers@heraldnet.com. At Sky River Park
Mountlake Terrace 301 213 0—10 13 2
Monroe 010 120 1—5 10 5
Maddy Kristjanson and Hannah Fickle. Alyssa Egan and Rachael Delamare. WP — Kristjanson (2-1). LP — Egan. 2B — Kristjanson (MT), Delamare 3 (Mon), Kathleen Sundet (Mon), Michaela Johnson (Mon), Egan (Mon). 3B — Kiley Ochoa (Mon). HR — Hannah Wilcox (MT). Records — Mountlake Terrace 2-2, Monroe 2-4.
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