PREP SOFTBALL: Mountaineers make district

| MARK MALIJAN THE BELLINGHAM HERALD

On Monday, the Mountaineers found themselves in the exact same position — facing an elimination game with the Falcons standing in the visiting dugout at Mount Baker High School.

Despite a little bit of a shaky start, Mount Baker made sure it wasn’t going to happen again this year by claiming a 5-1 victory over South Whidbey.

With the win, Mount Baker (13-8) enters the double-elimination portion of the district tournament and will play Cascade Conference champion Cedarcrest in the first round at 4 p.m. Wednesday at Janicki Fields in Sedro-Woolley.

“I think we were a little nervous early on, in light of what happened last year,” Mount Baker coach Ron Lepper said. “I think they were feeling the pressure a little bit.”

It probably didn’t help that South Whidbey leadoff hitter Natasha Roberts reached base on a disputed call only three pitches into the game. Roberts was originally called out, but the throw appeared to pull Mount Baker’s Alex Lepper off the firstbase bag.

After the Falcons coaching staff questioned the call, the umpires conferred and reversed the ruling.

Roberts proceeded to steal second and third base and scored when she slid under the tag on a infield ground ball put in play by Mel Murphy.

“Giving up that unearned run didn’t help us relax any,” Ron Lepper said. “We just needed to start making plays and settling down.”

It wasn’t until the bottom of the fourth inning that Mount Baker finally started to look comfortable, though.

That’s when Shanli Dillard slapped a leadoff single back up the middle.

Dillard was off and running when Alexis Pinkston blasted a double to the left-field gap, easily making it home to tie the score, 1-1.

“We just weren’t getting any runs until then,” Pinkston said of the hit. “It was a real big relief when we got on the board.”

Imagine what it felt like when the Mountaineers took the lead.

That came two batters later, when Miranda Munsell, who was a courtesy runner for Pinkston, scored from third on Taylor Coston’s ground out. Munsell didn’t make things easy on the play, though, as she hesitated before breaking for home, but the throw from first base was bobbled at the plate.

“When we scored those two runs, everybody lightened up a little bit,” Lepper said. “We started playing relaxed and having some fun.”

And Zender made sure the fun would continue as she retired all nine batters she faced after Mount Baker took the lead, using only 19 pitches in the process.

“When I see us put runs up on the board, I know that’s my time to shut them down so we can keep the lead,” Zender said.

Zender (11-7) was not necessarily overpowering, but she struck out five and allowed only two hits, the unearned run and walked one while going the distance.

She also made good use of the Mount Baker defense, collecting 13 ground-ball outs.

“I think our defense really played well behind her,” Lepper said. “We had a couple more errors than we would have liked early, but when they settled down they made the plays they needed to make.”

So did the offense, which added a run-scoring ground out by Dillard in the fifth and two more runs off walks by Bayli Hochstein and Tiffany Baisden in the sixth.

With those security runs, it was on to Sedro-Woolley, where the Mountaineers hope to grab one of four district berths to state.

“We know it’s going to be tough at district,” Lepper said. “There are some pretty good teams down south, including Cedarcrest, and there are some strong teams from our own conference ... We might be a little bit of a dark horse, but if we stay within ourselves and play hard, good things can happen.”

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