Story and photos by Doug Petrowski

Although they scored five runs in each of their first two games, the Mountlake Terrace girls softball team wanted more. The team had been frustrated by their offensive performance early in the 2013 season, said Coach Shannon Rasmussen. That all changed with one inning on Monday, as the Hawks sent 11 batters to the plate in the sixth inning of their game against Edmonds-Woodway, scored eight runs, and rode that offensive explosion to a 10-5 win over the Warriors.

“I’m glad our bats finally came alive,” said Rasmussen, who picked up her first victory as a head coach.

Junior Maddy Kristjanson led off the bottom of the sixth with a solo home run over the left field fence, followed by a grand slam homer to the same spot later in the inning. Kristjanson went 3-4 at the plate, had six RBIs, scored three runs and, oh by the way, pitched a complete game with seven strikeouts and just one walk.

Junior Hannah Baisch also homered in the sixth inning, went 2-4 with a double, and had two RBI’s. Sophomore Hannah Wilcox joined the hit parade, going 3-3 with a double and scoring two runs.

“Everyone had big hits up and down the lineup,” Rasmussen said. “We’ve been waiting for them to break out. It’s good to see they finally did.”

Edmonds Woodway (1-2) ran out to a 5-2 lead after five innings, mostly through the efforts of Warrior Brooklynn Bailey, who went 4-4 from the plate with a two-run homer and two doubles. Bailey’s dinger came in the first inning, giving the Warriors the early lead. But it didn’t last long as Hawks Kristjanson and Baisch supplied RBI hits in the bottom of the first to tie the score at 2.

Baisch had to move up to the number-four spot in the Hawk lineup due to the absence of Rene Bos, Terrace’s usual cleanup hitter. Bos is out at least a week, maybe two, because of a stubborn ankle injury, Rasmussen said.

The big run production in a single inning was significant considering Bos’ unavailability, but something Rasmussen hopes to see more of this season. “We’ve got a really big core lineup of power hitters,” she said. “So if we can get them all going at the same time then we can have a lot of big innings.”

The Hawks (1-2) will be looking for more big innings later this week as they play both Thursday and Friday. Thursday’s game is against the Monroe Bearcats at SkyRiver Park in Monroe starting at 4 p.m. Terrace returns home on Friday for a 4 p.m. match-up with the visiting Newport Knights.

Monday’s night’s game was streamed live and is now available to watch on-demand via the Hawks Live Sports Network.