On to state, softball nine returns to Tacoma

Sammy Bingham (left) and Brittany Jeans enthusiastically celebrate the Spartans’ 10-5 district fastpitch victory over Arlington Thursday afternoon. The squad’s only seniors helped propel the local softball team to the state championships, which begin this coming Fri., May 28, in Tacoma. PHOTO BY JOHN GALBREATH | STANWOOD/CAMANO NEWS Stanwood’s Lady Spartan fastpitchers are returning to the state 4A softball tourney for the second straight year after overcoming a onerun, semi-final loss in the 4A District Softball Tournament last week.

Just one season and six seniors after the last state appearance, the Sparts are returning to Tacoma’s SERA fields this weekend seeking to capture a first-ever placing in the top eight 4A squads in Washington.

That gathering will take place this coming Friday and Saturday, May 28 and 29. Further details about the tournament can be obtained by calling the SHS athletic director’s office at 629- 1322.

Made especially difficult by a “no-call” in the bottom of the first inning of the Spartans’ semi-final loss to Jackson’s Timberwolves last Tuesday, the local lasses recovered sufficiently to overcome that oversight and eventually qualify for the state session with two straight victories on Friday.

Following a base on balls, the Wolves’ base runner crashed into the Sparts’ Tori Kriegel as she fielded a ball near second base. When there was no umpire’s interference call, Jackson had two runners on base with just one out.

The runner at second eventually scored on a squeeze bunt that proved to be the difference in the game.

After the Wolves built a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the fifth, Stanwood’s Sammy Bingham crushed a pitch for what was to be the first of three home runs she hit for the tournament. Shortstop Shawna Hochstetler scored ahead of her teammate and it was 3-2, Jackson.

And thus it remained as the Wolves won, advanced to the final against Marysville Pilchuck and eventually won the district crown in a run-filled, back-and-forth title game.

Stanwood’s girls built a 3-0 first-inning lead over Shorewood in the first game of the tournament after Bingham, the team’s catcher who will be playing as a Jackrabbit for South Dakota University next season, blasted the first of two triples, scoring Kristin Musgrove and Hochstetler.

Kriegel’s single brought Bingham home and the Spartans had a comfortable three-run lead.

Hochstetler’s single to right field brought Sarah Crane home the next inning to make it 4-0.

Shorewood scored a run over each of the next two frames, but Bingham once again knocked in the everon base Hochstetler, who had singled, with a double to the base of the fence in the bottom of the fifth and it was 5-2.

There it remained despite Bingham’s apparent home run in the bottom of the sixth inning. That four-bagger became a triple when the home-plate umpire upheld a Thunderbird protest that Bingham didn’t touch home plate while being mobbed by her fellow Spartans.

The Lady Spartans had thumped the T-Bird’s pitcher for 15 hits in that opener while their own chucker, senior Brittany Jeans, held Shorewood to five hits. Jeans struck out six straight batters to close out the game.

Determined to advance to the state playoffs, the Sparts unleashed their bats for 24 hits in the final two games to beat Snohomish 12-2 and Arlington 10-5.

Stanwood offset a 1-0 Panther lead as – guess who? – Sammy Bingham doubled to knock in Shawna Hochstetler to knot the contest.

The locals’ big inning was the second. A series of walks and singles resulted in no less than six platecrossings before Snohomish could record their second out. It was now 7-1.

Third baseman Stephanie Turner later knocked in Hochstetler, who had four hits in the game, to make it 8-2.

Meanwhile Jeans was spreading out six Panther hits over the six innings of play.

The game came to an end when the 10-run mercy rule was invoked after Stanwood tallied four more runs. Turner’s two-run single was the telling blow in the last frame of that runaway win.

Against Arlington in the winner-to-state, losergoes home finale, Sammy Bingham’s five runs-battedin off another pair of home runs and a single and Jeans’ clutch pitching down the stretch, assured the Lady Sparts’ return to the state tournament.

Arlington went ahead 4- 3 in the fifth but Stanwood returned the favor with five consecutive plate-crossings by Elizabeth Barnes, Musgrove, Hochstetler, Bingham and Kriegel in the bottom of the inning.

Jeans herself had a 3- for-4 day at the dish while giving up just one run the rest of the day.