State softball: Snohomish denied crown as Peninsula claims first

LACEY — Patti Lande stood in the shade near her dugout at the Regional Athletic Complex and held back the tears. She watched as her Snohomish Panthers softball team, including nine seniors, hugged and cried as they stood around third base.

And Lande reflected — on a season that had just ended in a 4-1 defeat to Peninsula in the Class 3A state championship game, on a group of seniors that defied, survived and ultimately thrived over a difficult four-year period for high-school students.

“It’s emotional,” Lande said. “Nine of them are done. Many of those are COVID kids, so they missed two seasons.”

After the 2020 and 2021 spring season postseasons were canceled thanks to the pandemic, Snohomish returned to the field with a vengeance. The Panthers were a quarterfinal team a year ago, and this spring dominated the Class 3A ranks all season long.

After a 7-3 semifinal victory over Walla Walla on Saturday morning, Snohomish stood at 27-0 against 3A opponents this year. The Panthers only losses were to Class 4A teams from Glacier Peak, Jackson (the two Class 4A championship finalists) and Lake Stevens.

Through five innings against the Seahawks, Snohomish had a chance to make it 28 in a row in classification. Avery Clark’s soft double over the head of Peninsula third baseperson Kallee Waage drove in shortstop Emma Hansen to tie the title game at 1-1 and left runners at second and third on the throw.

That turned out to be the extent of the rally.

Though each team got a runner aboard and to second base, neither could score against the opponents pitchers as first Skyla Bristol, who struck out 11 Seahawks, and Alli Kimball got their squads into the sixth at 1-1.

That’s when Peninsula, from Purdy, finally got to Bristol. Catcher Hailey Ruckle singled to right center to lead things off, just the third hit of the game for the Seahawks against Bristol. A throwing error on a ground ball by Glory Estabrook left runners at first and second with nobody out.

One batter later, Kimball strode to the plate. The senior knew she needed a good at-bat, and she delivered in a huge way as she drove a Bristol pitch into left-center field.

It looked at first as if the ball may get caught at the fence. Instead, Kimball’s shot cleared the flexible netting for a three-run home run and a 4-1 lead.

Now in need of just six outs for Peninsula’s first softball state championship, Kimball found another level.

“It was such a big moment,” Kimball said. “From that point on, I just knew. I wanted to be a state champ. We really wanted it. We wanted it so bad.”

Already working quickly for most of the game, Kimball sped her work up even a little more over the last two innings. And her velocity seemed to go up, as well.

Kimball didn’t allow another Panther base runner over the final two innings. She struck out three of the final six batters she faced to finish with seven.

Snohomish’s Brdiget Jones became the last out, hitting the ball as hard as anyone in the final two innings, but lining it back up the middle toward Kimball who snatched the ball for the third out before throwing her glove (with the ball still in it) into the air to start the championship celebration.