LACEY — Meadowdale head coach Dennis Hopkins and his team are developing an addiction to the state softball tournament.
For the fourth consecutive season the Mavericks journeyed to the Regional Athletic Complex in Lacey and for the second time in that run Meadowdale returned home with some hardware after the Mavericks defeated Prairie 13-9 in a back-and-forth battle in the 3A state third-place game Saturday afternoon.
“It’s determination, wanting it, the desire to get there. Once you get here the first time, you want to come back,” Hopkins said. “Then you get here the next time, you get a trophy and then you don’t get one and you go, ‘OK, we’ve got to go back there and get hardware again.’”
Meadowdale saw its dreams of a state title dashed after Prairie defeated the Mavericks with a walk-off three-run home run in a state quarterfinal game Friday.Meadowdale got a little revenge on Saturday, defeating the Falcons in a game that Prairie led on three different occasions.
“(Friday’s) game, we kind of thought we had it,” Meadowdale senior Haili Taylor said. “But they played a great game and fought back. (Saturday), it was our turn.”
Prairie took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first but Emma Helm, who went 3-for-4 with three RBI and two runs scored, tied the game with a two-run homer.
Samantha Gregoryk (2-for-3 with two runs scored) added a two-run home run in the fourth to put Meadowdale ahead after a four-run top of the second inning for Prairie.
The Falcons again were on top after scoring three in the sixth but Meadowdale responded with a six-run inning to get the lead for good.
“It was two great offensive teams and we just ended up playing our game and doing what we needed to do to get the win,” Taylor said. “… We would have liked to win it all, but sometimes that doesn’t happen. And to be third at state is a pleasure. It’s a great feeling to be able to share it with these girls.”
The Meadowdale coach also found a way to honor Taylor in her final game with the Mavericks. With two outs in the seventh, Hopkins sent Taylor, who injured her knee in Meadowdale’s first victory of the day, into the game to stand out at third base for the final out of her high school career with her knee in a brace.
Meadowdale won each of its first two games Saturday by double digits, defeating Central Kitsap 10-0 and Kamiakin 12-0 in a pair of loser-out games. The Mavericks hit 12 home runs in the state tournament and finished the year with 56.
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