You’ll find an awful lot of stories and results from yesterday’s tournaments and meets in today’s paper. You’ll see that Kennedy and Kentlake clinched state berths in softball tournaments down south, and that Jackson and Marysville-Pilchuck are to meet in the final of the Northwest 4A tournament up north. Issaquah and Newport survived thrillers in their winner-to-state semifinals before having another close game in the final (Issaquah won).
You’ll see that Lakeside joined Mercer Island in the 3A soccer final four, and that a pair of athletes up north –Snohomish’s Jessica Yates and Mariner’s Marzell Jenkins — had a great day at the track. You’ll also see that Franklin guard Peyton Siva — recently ranked 20th in the country by Rivals.com — plans on being a Louisville Cardinal.
But I have one more story for you, one that isn’t in today’s section because I just received this e-mail this morning from someone at Woodinville. Yesterday, I mentioned that Eastlake and Woodinville met in the third game this season between two of the area’s top teams. Woodinville won 4-3 with a pair of runs in the ninth. A reader gives us these details:
Halfway through the season we lost one of our starting senior pitchers to torn ankle ligaments during a Garfield game. Since then, Devan McComb, our other senior pitcher, has been stellar. We had 14 games in a row due to rain outs … no days off. She was like a rock.
In last night’s game in the 4th inning, she hit first base wrong and rolled her ankle. She was in a lot of pain. The whole crowd was silent and we knew we were done … She hobbled in the dugout and you can imagine our surprise when the next inning started, out she came. We all watched her closely. It was not her landing foot, but her push off foot that was hurt. You could see her wince with each pitch, taking deep breaths many times during a pitch. There were tears in her eyes, but that kid just kept on going. It was because of her “never give up attitude” that we won that championship. We also had many younger class players step up and have some great at bats and great plays. A true team effort, but one that was based on Devan’s “warrior” mentality. She set the tone for the last 2 innings of that game.
Where to be today
Baseball state playoffs. They’re everywhere today, beginning at 10 a.m. You can find Bothell and Kentlake playing today in Kent; Snohomish, Puyallup and Mountlake Terrace in Everett; Tahoma and Marysville-Pilchuck in Tacoma; Hazen and Issaquah in Bellevue; and Mt. Rainier, Seattle Prep, West Seattle and Meadowdale in Mount Vernon.
Softball districts. The Northwest and West Central Districts both finish up today.
Soccer state quarters. Beamer and Shorewood play at Shoreline Stadium tonight at 7 in the only game being played locally. Eastlake’s in Spokane to play Mead and Kennedy is at Sunnyside.