By early Saturday afternoon it was clear Juneau would be taking home the small school softball state championship, but one gnawing question still remained: which Juneau team?<\/p>\n
Thunder Mountain High School and Juneau-Douglas High School faced off for the softball state title Saturday afternoon, capping an excellent weekend for both teams with historic firsts for TMHS. It was the first state title game for any TMHS team and the first time two Juneau teams played for a state title.<\/p>\n
To add to the drama, TMHS had beaten JDHS for the first time in program history earlier this season and had already done so in the morning\u2019s semifinal.<\/p>\n
The writing on the wall was clear: TMHS was the team of destiny. The outcome fit the season\u2019s narrative with TMHS securing the 14-6 win after a shootout of a game.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re all on cloud nine right now, we\u2019re so happy,\u201d said Falcons senior Tracy Bourassa. \u201cMost of us are saying we can\u2019t believe it but we worked our butts off to take that title home. It\u2019s a great thing to take back home to our school and family and just represent TM.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bourassa said she knew they had a chance when her team tied the game 6-6 after going down 6-3 in the third.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were a little bit down but I feel like when we\u2019re down and we go up to bat, our anger comes out and we fight our way back every time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Though the Falcons earned their crucial lead in the fourth, they sealed the game with a five-run effort in the fifth, which more than doubled JDHS\u2019 score and invoked the eight-run mercy rule. The winning run came off a passed ball that brought freshman Nina Fenumiai in for the triumphant run home and the embrace of her celebrating teammates.<\/p>\n
Junior Alondra Echiverri led the Falcons from the plate with three RBIs on a 4-4 performance. Echiverri was selected to the all-tournament team along with TMHS senior Taylor Beardslee and JDHS junior Sami Good and sophomore Morgan Balovich.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re feeling pretty good right now, really pumped,\u201d Echiverri said. \u201cI\u2019m really proud right now and I\u2019m glad we\u2019re making history for our school. It\u2019s pretty cool to be the first team to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
TMHS head coach Jorge Cordero couldn\u2019t have been prouder of his team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m flying high!\u201d Cordero said. \u201cIt was a little tough in the beginning, but we came back and put them away. Parents, kids, everybody\u2019s excited, I\u2019m just happy for our program. It\u2019s a big boost for the school, that\u2019s huge and I am glad it\u2019s our team. It put us on the map.\u201d<\/p>\n
Having rested while JDHS played a losers bracket final, TMHS looked fresh at the start of the game, pushing to a 3-0 lead in the first inning off a two-RBI double by Alondra Echiverri and a sacrifice fly by Peyton Harp.<\/p>\n
After scoring one in the top of the second, JDHS tied the game 3-3 in the third when Amanda Bicknell hit a two-RBI grounder to right field, and then took a 6-3 lead with an RBI single from Mia Loree and a two-RBI line drive by Samanta Pak.<\/p>\n
Thunder Mountain came back and tied the game in the third as they packed the bags with no outs leading to three runs on RBIs from Tracy Bourassa, Nina Fenumiai and Megan Dallas.<\/p>\n
A wacky play in the bottom of the fourth allowed TMHS to again take the lead with a three-run infield grounder.<\/p>\n
Echiverri hit a slow grounder down the right field line with the ball staying barely in play. JDHS overthrew the ball to first, allowing runners on second and third to score while Echiverri rounded home for the three-RBI bunt.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t even know how that happened,\u201d Echiverri said. \u201cI thought I was going to be out. I wasn\u2019t really paying attention, just trying to make it to first before the ball did and I saw my teammate Maxie (Saceda-Hurt) was almost all the way to third and I still see Hayleigh (Dicarlo) still at third so I was really confused. \u2026 I just remember running really hard around the bases and nobody had the ball so I just kept going.\u201d<\/p>\n
JDHS coach Dave Massey said his girls are feeling good about how they responded to the adversity the tournament threw at them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am very very proud of them. There\u2019s no quit in these girls,\u201d Massey said, adding that he was excited for TMHS and to see Juneau softball so well-represented. \u201cBoth teams were kinda halfway rooting for each other. It\u2019s been a long road for Jorge and his coaching staff so I am happy for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The JDHS girls played an extra game before the championship and dealt with a slew of injuries.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think any of us have been more tired, ever, but we played through knowing it was some of our last years together,\u201d said Amanda Bicknell.<\/p>\n
The long weekend for each team\u2019s pitchers showed its toll with coaches from both teams forced to make tough pitching choices during the game. TMHS pulled their starting pitcher Beardslee in the third for Makayla Harp while JDHS replaced Leah Spargo \u2014 who\u2019d pitched 12 innings in two days \u2014 for Elisa Fabrello in the fourth, though JDHS coach Dave Massey put Spargo back in the game in the fifth inning.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a hard choice for me to take Taylor (Beardslee) out,\u201d Cordero said. \u201cShe did a good job for us all season. Last night, against Hutchison, I kept her the whole game and she pitched so well but it was a tough game. She deserved the whole game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beardslee anchored the Falcons pitching all season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThroughout the tournament, Taylor\u2019s pitching really helped us,\u201d Echiverri said.<\/p>\n
TMHS finished their landmark season with a 15-7 record while JDHS ended their season 10-7.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By early Saturday afternoon it was clear Juneau would be taking home the small school softball state championship, but one gnawing question still remained: which Juneau team? Thunder Mountain High School and Juneau-Douglas High School faced off for the softball state title Saturday afternoon, capping an excellent weekend for both teams with historic firsts for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":13320,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-13319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13319"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=13319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}