MONROE — After a disappointing loss to Jackson in Thursday’s Class 4A District 1 championship game, Snohomish softball coach Lou Kennedy was unsure what to expect in Friday’s winner-to-state, loser-out game against Lake Stevens.
But on the bus ride to the game, Kennedy heard singing from his players. And at that point, he said with a smile, “I thought, ‘OK, we’re in good shape. We’re fine.’”
Indeed they were. Despite a youthful starting lineup with six freshmen, Snohomish was cool, carefree and certainly capable against the Vikings. Shrugging off an early 1-0 deficit, the Panthers countered with two runs in the third inning and another in the fourth for a 3-1 victory at Monroe’s Sky River Park, clinching a spot in next week’s state tournament.
Snohomish got seven strong innings from freshman starting pitcher Bailey Greenlee, who yielded just three more hits after giving up a first-inning home run to Lake Stevens’ Payton Beaver. The Panthers got two hits and took advantage of two errors for a pair of runs in the third, and then combined a walk, a single, a sacrifice and another single for an insurance run in the fourth.
The game was played one day after the Panthers lost 2-0 to Jackson in the district title game, which had Kennedy wondering how his team would bounce back.
“I was concerned about it all night, and of course coaches don’t sleep,” he said. “But (the players) were just outstanding. They started out a little bit tight, but they really relaxed.”
Greenlee was not overpowering, striking out just two, but she moved the ball around and changed speeds, and she induced the Vikings to hit a lot of pop-ups and infield bouncers. Two exceptions were Beaver’s first-inning homer to left-center and a towering double to straightaway center by Amie Browder in the fourth, but otherwise Lake Stevens did not advance a runner past first base.
“Bailey has tremendous mound attitude,” Kennedy said. “She feels invincible, which is great, especially for a young pitcher.”
It helps, too, that Greenlee’s catcher is her sister, senior Morgan Greenlee. “(Bailey) gains a lot of her confidence and a lot of her poise from her sister,” Kennedy said. “That’s a battery that people dream of. Morgan can talk to her, Morgan can calm her, and Morgan watches her mechanics. So that combination is unbelievable.”
Other freshmen in the Snohomish lineup also made important contributions. Center fielder and leadoff hitter Sami Reynolds was 2-for-4 with a stolen base, run scored and an RBI. Bailey Greenlee reached on an error and scored a run, third baseman Carmen Morrison and first baseman Joy Winston were both 1-for-3, and shortstop Ruby Butler was flawless defensively.
There are, Kennedy acknowledged, some outstanding youth teams and youth coaches in Snohomish, “and we’re benefiting like crazy from them. (The freshmen) have played a lot of ball, and they not only know how to play physically, they understand the game they’re playing.”
That said, it was one of the team’s veterans who helped restore order after Thursday’s loss to Jackson.
“We were really disappointed with ourselves about our loss,” Reynolds said. “But after the game Morgan (Greenlee) made a speech. She basically told us to wipe it (away) immediately. We were all very angry, but she said we had to get over it and move on to the next one.”
And now the Panthers get to move on again, this time to the state tournament.
“Being a freshman and going to state my first year, that’s pretty awesome,” Reynolds said. “It’s really a great opportunity.”
“I know for a fact the other freshmen are just stoked to be going to state,” Morrison agreed. “And now we just have to play like we know to play.”
The loss was a heartbreaking end to the season for Lake Stevens, and Vikings coach Sarah Hirsch was particularly disappointed by Snohomish’s two unearned runs in the third inning. “I would love to do that inning over,” she said wistfully.
“But overall I thought we had a pretty good year,” Hirsch added. “We played well and we competed in everything we did.”
At Sky River Park
Lake Stevens 100 000 0 — 1 4 2
Snohomish 002 100 x — 3 7 0
Sara Johnson and Tehya Harney. Bailey Greenlee and Morgan Greenlee. WP—B. Greenlee. LP—Johnson. 2B—Amie Browder (LS). HR—Payton Beaver (LS). Records—Lake Stevens 18-7. Snohomish 19-3.
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