Alexis Cline said she had an adrenaline rush all day, starting with when she woke up Wednesday morning and lasting until she caught the last pitch of the game.
Mariah Dawson’s final pitch — a called third strike — gave her 17 strikeouts, and it secured a 3-2 victory over Kelso in just about the biggest non-league softball game one could ask for in this state.
Kelso came into the game ranked No. 1 by the Seattle Times among Class 4A teams. Union is the top-ranked 3A team in the state.
No. 1 vs. No. 1 was hyped, and the game matched that hyperbole.
Cline’s two-run double in the bottom of the fifth inning gave the Titans a 3-2 lead, and Dawson got out of a jam in the seventh by striking out her day’s nemesis, Mackenzie Martin.
“She got me twice,” Dawson said. “I wanted her.”
Martin’s double in the third inning led to a run after an errant throw, tying the game at 1. In the fifth, Martin’s single led to another run that scored on a throwing error and a 2-1 lead for the defending Class 4A state champions.
Dawson said errors happen to everybody, and as a pitcher, it is her job to forget miscues and focus on the next batter.
“It’s my time. I need to buck up. I need to throw strikes. I need to help my team out,” she said.
Her 17 strikeouts give her 109 this season in 52 innings. She has 861 in her career, on pace to break the state record, held by former Skyview standout Whitney Baker, who had 949.
Wednesday’s Ks were extra special, she said, because of the opponent.
“I’ve prepared myself for this the last couple of weeks,” Dawson said. “I knew I had to rely on my off-speed (pitches) to keep them off balance. They’re great hitters, one through nine. Me and A.C. work together really good. We really mixed it up.”
A.C. is Cline, Union’s catcher, and one who had every reason to be nervous in the final inning. Kelso advanced runners to second and third base with two outs, and Dawson told Cline at a meeting in the pitcher’s circle what was coming: a changeup toward the outside of the plate. If the ball got away from Cline, the tying run could score.
“I’m still shaking from that last pitch,” Cline said.
Cline delivered in the clutch earlier, too. Rebecca Thomsen got a one-out single in the fifth before Bri Mason worked a walk. One out later, Cline came to the plate.
“I felt the pressure,” she said. “I knew we had to score those two runs, or at least one. I just bucked up and got it out there.”
Cline’s smash went over the left-fielder’s head for the two-run double.
“I had to take 10 deep breaths,” Cline said.
Union got on the board in the first inning on Kadi Henderson’s run-scoring single.
Making the scene feel even more important to the players was the crowd that gathered for the game. Softball, along with many spring sports, rarely attracts more than a few dozen spectators — at least until the postseason. There were roughly 300 fans at Union’s field for this game — many of them students.
“It was awesome,” Cline said. “It was great hearing our school cheer us on.”
“All of a sudden, we’re getting support. The staff’s beginning to notice us. Students are coming up to us in the halls,” Dawson said. “It’s amazing.”
That’s what a 1-vs.-1 matchup will do.
And those Union fans got what they wanted: A close game and a victory for the Titans.
