Softball wins 5th championship in 8 seasons

The 2016 iteration of the Mt. Hood Saints – once again, NWAC champions, winning their title in Portland’s Delta Park on Monday – was an impressive group to follow.

The softball team unified and played as a sum of all parts each and every game, picked each other up when needed, and closely shadowed head coach Meadow McWhorter’s mantra of “family.”

At the end of each year, the freshmen assume the responsibility of team leaders as they return for the next season, and this group featured a solid core of sophomores, including first-year MHCC student and Saints ace pitcher, Kayla Byers.

During the spring, before Mt. Hood’s first game, McWhorter was explaining her team’s makeup, saying, “We’ve got a really fun and talented group this year, including a really good pitcher out of Eastern Florida (State College).” She was referencing Byers, a Hood River native who came back west to play for the Saints, and who would compile a 21-3 record with a conference-best 1.62 ERA and 191 strikeouts in 173 innings pitched.

The team’s success didn’t solely rest on Byers’ arm though. The offense was no slouch, led by catcher Darian Lindsey, center fielder Tiara Champ, shortstop Megan Marcy, third baseman Rachel Rutledge, and unsurprisingly, Byers. The Saints posed a threat from every spot in their lineup, and had an incredible balance of power, contact and speed. Once they mowed through conference play with a first-place South Region record of 17-3, they were ready to put their mark on the tournament as the No. 3 seed, facing the 2013 champions and No. 14 seed Wenatchee Valley College in Friday’s opener.

The Knights were quickly dispatched by Mt. Hood, which was looking for a bigger fish to fry and found it in familiar divisional foe Lower Columbia. The Saints handled the Red Devils with relative ease during the regular season, but Lower Columbia was determined in the tournament. They pushed Mt. Hood to the brink, forcing a proverbial cornered animal to strike for three runs in the bottom of the seventh and final inning, for a 4-3 walk-off win.

Saturday presented Centralia College as the Saints’ next victim, and Byers was on her game, tossing seven innings of shutout ball and recording 11 K’s. The 5-0 win sent Mt. Hood to the semi-finals against the Royals of Douglas College. Douglas flies the Canadian flag, hailing from Vancouver, B.C., and the Saints came prepared with red, white and blue ribbons, cheers for America and waved little American flags in the dugout. The competition led to a thrilling extra-inning affair, with Douglas scoring one in the top of the eighth to go up, 4-3, where Mt. Hood had to make the next move. And the Saints would, plating two in the bottom half for another dramatic walk-off victory, to punch their ticket to the championship game.

The beat goes on

Walking around the Delta Park softball complex Friday afternoon provided a sensory overload. Each field was in use during the round-robin tournament, with 16 games scheduled (each team playing twice). Cheers, jeers and shouts of “heads!” were heard from the stands – “heads” of course, the call when a foul ball sails away from the field of play and towards unsuspecting spectators. Team chants could be heard from every dugout, as is traditional in softball, but no dugout was louder than Mt. Hood’s. Jazmayne Williams is methodical in her beats, pounding a plastic bin with one bare hand and a ball in the other, to a rhythm concocted both by popular songs and the nature of the cheer. It amps up the crowd and hypes up the dugout as the rest of the ladies get louder, willing their teammates to succeed. “Where the Hood, where the Hood, where the Hood at?!”

“Five for Meadow”

The weather played nice all weekend, allowing the tournament to run its course without delay, and Monday was no exception. The overcast sky provided a perfect backdrop for softball, with no real wind factor to speak of. The sun decided to make an appearance only when the Saints had clinched and mobbed the circle, shining light on coach McWhorter’s fifth NWAC title in eight seasons.

Mt. Hood lived up to its own high expectations this year, going 38-8 overall, winning first place in the South Region, and securing a No. 3 seed in the tournament field of 16. Expectations often lead to heartbreak, as was the case for the sophomores and staff last year. “The goal is, win two the first day, then one a day from there on out,” said McWhorter, regarding tournament play. A simple strategy but incredibly tough to accomplish, as the level of talent across the conference is enormous. The 2015 tournament saw the Saints lose once on the first day, seating them in a bracket where they had to play more often and win out to avoid double-elimination. They fell just short, though, finishing second and stalling McWhorter’s impressive title accumulation, but vowed to come back and get it done this year. NWAC All-Tournament outfielder Courtney Cabana was part of last year’s squad, and said before this season began, “We’re here to take back what’s ours.”

Road to the title

What an exciting group to watch. The Saints played as a unified team all year, picked each other up, and breathed/lived to head coach Meadow McWhorter’s mantra of “family.” After a successful year, they entered the postseason facing No. 14 seed Wenatchee Valley, the champions of 2013.

Consecutive come-from-behind, walk-off victories on Friday and Saturday punched their ticket to the championship as the last undefeated team.

wWe are the Champions:

The Saints waited in the wings for the winner of Douglas and Bellevue on Monday morning, having dropped Douglas in spectacular fashion just the day before. The Royals responded by capitalizing on Bulldog mistakes, and went on to outscore Bellevue, 8-6, moving on to the championship round, where they would have to beat the Saints – twice – to win the title.

Mt. Hood would just need the one game though, as the offense scored early and often, first going up 2-0 in the second inning on Champ’s slap hit to left, then 4-0 in the fourth from Lindsey’s rocket-propelled home run beyond the left field fence.

Megan Marcy’s solo blast made it 5-0 in the fifth, but Douglas scored in the bottom half to get on the board after four innings of offensive futility. Another Royals run in the sixth cut it to 5-2, but the Saints answered, going up 7-2 in the top of the seventh, and pitcher Kayla Byers shut the door to seal the championship.

Byers threw every inning for the Saints in the playoffs, mostly cruising through opposing lineups and limiting damage. Assistant coach Rick McWhorter told her that she grew with every start made this year, both as a pitcher and as a person. That growth led her to NWAC Most Valuable Player title honors. Her battery mate, freshman catcher Darian Lindsey, was another integral part of the team’s success, calling tremendous games, daring baserunners to steal on her and being a force at the dish. Her teammates call her “D-Money” for a reason, and she showed why.

Named to the All-Tournament team at her position, Lindsey and the rest of the freshmen are prepped to return to the Saints next year, hoping to repeat. But they’ll enjoy this one, and it’s only fitting they would have to defeat the Royals in order to wear the crown.

Advocate Staff