RICHLAND – Nooksack Valley senior Ellie VanBerkum had a pretty eventful day. She began Saturday’s festivities at the Columbia Playfields by singing the National Anthem, and she ended it by holding up a giant trophy as the Pioneers narrowly defeated Lakeside 4-3 for the Class 1A State Championship.
“They’re a pretty resilient group,” said Pioneer coach Tom Harmon. “Even in that last inning when they (Lakeside) got some runners on, that moment didn’t get to our team, and that’s a great thing to be around. These girls are so grounded, and they’ve been like that all season.”
After three scoreless innings, the Eagles scored their first run in the top of the fourth on a sacrifice fly. The Pioneers answered with a line-drive to left field by sophomore Lainey Kimball, which scored senior Sierra Anderson, who had doubled to lead off the inning.
Lakeside freshman Lacy Crabtree smashed a two-run homerun in the following inning to give the Eagles a 3-1 lead with two outs in the top of the fifth inning. After a few scoreless half-innings, The Pioneers came up to bat in the bottom of the sixth, needing a little bit of good fortune to come their way.
Senior Jordyn Relethford led off the inning with a single, and freshman Alayna Dykstra came in to run for her. Fellow senior Kenzie O’Bryan followed that up by another single, and Nooksack was in business. Both runners advanced a base on a passed ball, and Dykstra would score on a groundout off the bat of junior Ella Perry.
Seniors Renae Hoekema and VanBerkum then both walked to load the bases with two outs. It set the stage for left-handed senior leadoff hitter Jayden Loreen who smashed a 1-1 pitch the opposite way which scored O’Bryan and when Hoekema turned on the jets to race around third and score, it gave the Pioneers a 4-3 lead.
“I was just concerned about striking out,” Loreen said. “I didn’t want to have that weight on me.”
The Eagles were able to get two runners in scoring position in the seventh inning, but a fly ball to Anderson in the infield ended the contest.
Loreen went 3-for-3 in the championship game, while Relethford and O’Bryan each had a pair of hits. Relethford also struck out six batters, which brought her season total to 253.
“What makes our team amazing is the fact that we’ve all been playing together for so long,” Relethford said. “We all love each other so much, and we have an amazing community that supports us.”
Nooksack Valley got to the championship game by defeating Mount Baker in the semifinals 14-4. The Mountaineers held an early 4-0 advantage, with freshman Annalee Cohn scoring two of the four runs, but a 9-run bottom of the third by the Pioneers would put them ahead for good.
In the semifinal game Kimball went 3-for-3 with a double, a run batted in and three runs scored.
In the late 1990’s a lot of high schools stopped playing slow pitch softball, and adapted fastpitch. Multiple Whatcom County teams have won slow pitch state tournaments, but this was the first fastpitch state tournament won by a Whatcom County team.
Jayden Loren’s hit brought in Renae Hoekema not Ellie Van Berkum. Renae hits in the line up before Ellie, Ellie was left on base in the bottom of the 6th. Renae had an amazing weekend and it saddens me she is not being credited her hard work. Thank you for putting these articles out they make us feel all the more important!
So sorry Kenzie, my mistake! It’s all fixed now, thank you so much letting me know, and AWESOME job during the season!
Way to go Nooksack!!!!
I thought they might just take it all and, wouldn’t you know it, they did! Congratulations to all.