ROCHESTER — Over the last few seasons, league play has been a gauntlet for the Tenino softball team.
The Beavers have had their share of losses against Montesano, Rochester, and Elma, which have been three of the best teams in the state in recent years. Entering Thursday, Tenino had lost 23 1A Evergreen games in a row.
So when the Beavers put up 10 runs in the opening frame in Rochester on Thursday, it was no surprise that the joy and energy from the Tenino dugout was palpable.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Tenino coach Chris Johnson said.
Tenino rode the hot start and never looked back, picking up a 12-1 five-inning victory to snap their league losing streak.
“I am more proud of this group than I have been in all of my other sports,” Tenino senior Tamara Snodderly said. “We’ve been through a lot, so to see us actually start accomplishing something when we have all these slumps, it just makes me happy that we found that spot. And the fact we got to beat Rochester.”
Snodderly put the finishing touches on the opening frame, blasting a grand slam over the field in left-center to make it 10-0 less than 15 minutes after the first pitch was thrown.
In eighth grade, Snodderly hit eight home runs, but she had yet to hit a home run in a high school varsity game until Thursday.
“This year hasn’t been the best with my hitting,” Snodderly said. “I just told myself not to grip the bat as much, and that I needed to do it for my team.”
Snodderly admitted that she didn’t see the ball go over the fence, but she heard and saw Johnson celebrating in the coaches’ box near third base, and she also saw her teammates pouring out of the dugout to celebrate with her at home plate.
“It was one of the best experiences ever,” Snodderly said with a smile. “You could see the dugout just got so much more alive and everyone had so much more fun throughout the game.”
The grand slam was the final blow in a dominant first inning, a frame where seven straight Beavers reached base after a leadoff double from Jaeleen Woodward and a sacrifice bunt from Kylie Gonia started the game.
Woodward scored the first run on a passed ball, Chloe Grayless followed with an RBI double, Georgia Gore drew a walk with the bases loaded, and Preslee Fisher followed with a two-run single.
The second out of the inning didn’t come until Woodward hit a fly ball to center, and even that out was a productive one, as it brought home Gore, who tagged up from third to make it 6-0.
“We were super aggressive,” Johnson said. “We worked hard the last few weeks just getting out in front of stuff and getting on it quickly. That was what we wanted to do today. Just attack it and go after them hard.”
With plenty of run support, Katen Burkhardt went to work in the circle, allowing just one hit in two innings of work. Grayless entered in the third, and she allowed just one run while striking out two in the final three innings.
Rochester’s lone run came in the bottom of the fourth, when Jayden Evans hit an RBI single.
“All you could do at that point was come in and try to get the bats hot,” Rochester coach Joni Guerrero said. “We can’t roll over and die. You’ve got to have competitive at-bats, and you just have to fight … And we did that. We hit some hard ones, just right at them.”
Sahara Miskimens entered in relief in the first inning and helped things from snowballing any further, as she allowed just two earned runs and struck out three in four and a third.
Prior to the top of the fifth, Tenino led 11-1, but Johnson urged his team to add on to increase the likelihood of ending the game in five.
The Beavers responded by adding an insurance run in the form of an RBI single from Grayless.
“I like the fact that we didn’t quit on it,” Johnson said. “We didn’t sit back and say, okay, we’ve got 10. We went after it and attacked the ball again. It was nice to see.”
Snodderly finished with her four runs batted from the slam, while Grayless finished with three RBI and Fisher drove in two. Gore and Woodward also tallied an RBI apiece, and all nine Beavers who came to the plate scored at least one run in the victory.
Kyanna Estrada tallied two hits to lead the Rochester offense, and five others collected one hit each. Evans finished with the team’s lone RBI.
“We’re taking steps in some areas, and then we’re going backwards in some other areas,” Guerrero said. “Right now, we’re just trying to figure out how to grow in all aspects of it, all 12 of us together.
We just got to string more things together and keep growing together,” she continued. “They’re hungry, they’re learning, and they’re excited. We just got to show it a little bit more.”
Rochester (1-9, 0-4 1A Evergreen) will look to snap a now seven-game losing streak at home on Friday against North Thurston.
Tenino (3-7, 1-5 1A Evergreen) will head to Walla Walla on Saturday, when it will face Meridian and Riverside at the Mill Creek Sportsplex.
