SELAH — For the third time in the last four seasons, Tumwater is headed to the final four in Selah.
Riding the hot hand of Ella Ferguson and an early offensive explosion, the top-seeded T-Birds rolled to a 17-1 first-round win over No. 16 Nathan Hale before taking down No. 9 Lynden 6-0 in the quarterfinals on the first day of the 2A State Tournament at Carlon Park in Selah.
“I’m pumped for them,” first-year Tumwater coach Shaunie Kennedy said. “They’ve got something to prove, and they’re hungry for it. We’ve stayed hungry for it … We’re out here to just go get that.”
Ferguson’s district tournament domination carried over to Friday, where she was nearly unhittable.
In the first round matchup, she retired all nine batters she faced, striking out seven of them. In the quarterfinal, she gave up just one hit and walked one while striking out 14.
She was consistently hitting 62-plus on the radar gun, and she was able to effectively mix in her offspeed pitches to keep batters guessing.
“We all have confidence in her and she has confidence in us no matter what,” sophomore Sarah Stevens said. “I feel like that’s just such a good dynamic. As a pitcher too, when I know that my defense has my back, that’s just so empowering, and it’s something you really wanna roll with. Ella is such a confident person, and she knows that she can get it done.”
Ferguson certainly had more in the tank against Nathan Hale, but Stevens ended up pitching the final two innings after an 11-run third inning pushed Tumwater’s lead to 15-0.
The T-Birds didn’t have bad innings at the plate in the first two innings, where they scored a pair each to go up 4-0, but the big hits came in a flurry in the third.
“I think we just finally decided to sit on the pitches and not chase the pitches,” Kennedy said. “Once we light the fire, it goes.”
After the first three batters reached base to open the inning, Sophie Skillman cleared the bases with a three-run triple. Megan Barrett later hit a two-run double, and Stevens blasted a three-run home run to left field.
“I saw that one everybody else, she was leaning more towards the outside,” Stevens said. “As the only lefty on my team, I’m probably gonna get an inside pitch. And that’s what I got. I finally got that middle-in pitch that I love and drove it.”
There weren’t as many offensive fireworks in the quarterfinal victory, but there didn’t need to be.
Barrett and Zoe Fields opened the scoring in the third with back-to-back RBI doubles, while Marissa La Praim and Skillman hit back-to-back RBI singles later in the inning to make it 4-0.
In the sixth, Fields drove in a run with an RBI groundout, and Ferguson helped herself with an RBI double of her own.
The pair of wins pins the T-Birds against a familiar foe. They’ll face No. 4 Aberdeen in the state semifinals on Saturday morning.
A win would put Tumwater back in the state title game for the second straight season. They lost last spring, but won it all back in 2022.
The Thunderbirds took their first two meetings against the Bobcats this season, but Aberdeen won the most recent meeting on May 2.
Both Kennedy and Stevens said they were looking forward to another matchup against the Bobcats, and both expressed confidence in their ability to get it done.
“I feel like we definitely deserve to be in this spot,” Stevens said. “We just have to start from Inning 1. Hit them right in the face, don’t let off, and just keep going.”
