4A SOFTBALL: Thunder bats quieted in quarterfinals

Mountain View’s Amanda Livingston sends a delivery to a Mountlake Terrace batter during the Class 4A state quarterfinals Friday in Tacoma. (Zachary Kaufman/The Columbia)

TACOMA — The power-hitting Mountain View Thunder met their match Friday night in power pitcher Kori Seidlitz at the Class 4A state softball tournament.

Seidlitz took a perfect game into the seventh inning, leading Mountlake Terrace to a 3-1 victory over the Thunder in the championship quarterfinals at the Sound End Recreation Area.

Mountain View’s season then was saved for at least another game when the Thunder beat Lake Washington of Kirkland 4-2 in the consolation bracket late Friday night.

While the season is continuing, Mountain View coach Bob Van Horn is still smarting about the quarterfinal loss.

"We’re pretty crushed," he said. "It’s just frustrating because you second-guess yourself all the time."

The Thunder, who pride themselves on being a hitting team up and down the lineup, went 18 up and 18 down in the first six innings against Seidlitz.

"She just had our number the whole game," Van Horn said. "And we made two physical errors and one mental error, and that cost us two runs."

The Hawks scored two unearned runs in the first inning, and that was all Seidlitz would need. Mountlake Terrace added another run in the top of the seventh before Mountain View got a little momentum.

Jessica Guy led off the bottom of the inning with a single and would score on Paige Martin’s triple.

"We waited until the seventh inning to start hitting the ball," Van Horn said. "We didn’t expect that. I thought we’d find her sooner than we did. We couldn’t get anything. Our bats were flat."

The bats got back in the consolation round, though.

Paige Martin hit a shot for a solo home run and Kelly Lowe drove in two runs in the 4-2 victory.

"I’m very happy to be playing Saturday," Van Horn said.

Mountain View opened the tournament with a 3-0 win over Kennewick. Lowe struck out nine and tossed a one-hitter. Her sacrifice fly gave the Thunder a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning. Amanda Livingston, who had two doubles, drove in two runs in the fifth inning.

The Thunder, who won the 4A Greater St. Helens League title and finished second at district, had dreams of playing for a state championship. Now, the goal has changed.

Mountain View will play at 11 a.m. today in a consolation game, The Thunder need to win that one as well as a 1 p.m. game in order to play in the third-place game at 3:30 p.m.

Not the side of the bracket the Thunder had hoped to be in, but it is an improvement over last year when Mountain View failed to get past the first day at state.