EVERETT — Makinlee Sellevold didn’t let anything get to her. She just kept pitching to Jackson batters.
And kept getting them out.
Despite a loud Jackson team cheering in the dugout, Sellevold was not rattled. The Cascade pitcher struck out 10 batters and allowed just two hits as she helped lead Cascade to a 5-0 win over Wesco 4A South rival Jackson Tuesday afternoon at Cascade High School.
“She’s been on fire,” Bruins’ head coach Kelly Ross said. “The biggest thing that impresses me about her is she keeps her composure no matter what’s going on. As you can tell, their bench was deep and it was loud and she just stood in there and pitched her game. She’s been extremely strong on the mound this year.”
Sellevold was in control the whole time. She only walked two batters while Jessica Roy and Sophie Frost were the only Timberwolves batters to get hits off Sellevold.
The Cascade pitcher also helped herself out on offense, batting 3-for-3 with a double and two runs scored.
“She’s contributed the whole year,” Ross said. “Her first three games she had home runs in each game and she’s continued to be strong both offensively and defensively.”
The defending Wesco South champions also got a solid offensive outing from Taryn Salter, who batted 2-for-2 with a double and a sixth-inning solo home run. She had two RBI and a run scored.
The victory kept the Bruins (4-0 league, 9-0 overall) undefeated this season. Cascade knows teams are focused on handing the Bruins their first loss, Ross said, adding that her players have done well handling the added pressure.
“We knew it would be a tough game and we knew they were going to come out and fight,” Ross said of the Timberwolves. “The girls know they have a target on their back so we knew we had to come out and we had to play our game.”
While Jackson’s offense struggled against Sellevold, the Timberwolves’ defense also had some difficulties. Jackson, which features one senior and five freshmen, committed four errors in the game. That, combined with seven Cascade hits, was not a winning combination for the Timberwolves.
“It’s not a good recipe for success,” Jackson head coach Kyle Peacocke said. “? We’ll get better. We’ll continue to work and it’s a good lesson for us.”
Two Cascade runners scored on errors, including one Bruin batter who reached base because of another error.
“We made some defensive mistakes throughout the game that costs us some (runs), but we learned some things about ourselves,” Peacocke said. “Those (errors) were huge. Especially (in) playoff-type games, you have to be able to play solid defense. We are young and we’re still working some things out. We made some mistakes today.”
Frost pitched a solid game for the Timberwolves, striking out seven Cascade batters. Frost got the umpire’s attention in the first inning of the game because of some yellow writing on her glove. There is a new rule this year forbidding yellow on gloves because it is the same color as the ball. Frost had to use another glove until she could get the yellow writing blacked out.
“It could have rattled some young pitchers and (forced) them to make some changes,” Peacocke said. “? I think she did pitch a good game, and defensively, if we cleaned up those things, it would have been a different situation. I thought that she maintained her composure and didn’t let it rattle her.”
The Timberwolves (2-1, 5-3) were without starting second baseman, and reserve pitcher, Juliana Faulconer, who injured herself in a suspended game against Mariner on Friday. The junior sprained her knee in a collision with a Mariner baserunner.
Both Faulconer and Peacocke hope she’ll be able to return in about a week to a young Jackson squad that seeks to continue to its fast start to the season.
“They’re a great team,” Ross said. “They have tons of potential. They’re going to be hard to beat. We get to see them again, and we’ll look forward to that, but they’re young and they have a lot of talent.”
In the rematch, set for May 6 at Jackson, Peacocke and the Timberwolves might hope to see another pitcher besides Sellevold take the mound.
“She was on today,” Peacocke said. “She was getting ahead of hitters, mixing up locations, mixing up her speeds. She pitched a very good game. I was impressed.”
At Cascade H.S.
Jackson 000 000 0—0 2 4
Cascade 211 001 0—5 7 0
Sophie Frost and Kayla Ellis. Makinlee Sellevold and Alex Deaver. WP–Sellevold. LP–Frost (5-3). 2B–Frost (J), Sellevold (C), Taryn Salter (C). HR–Salter (C). Records–Jackson 2-1 league, 5-3 overall. Cascade 4-0, 9-0.
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