Riding the dependable pitching of Alison Moorhead and the big bat

of Dana Luizzo, the Mount Si varsity softball team snatched the final

berth in the Sea-King District tournament this week. Participating in the

4-team KingCo playoff at Skyline, the Wildcats defeated Newport 6-2

and Interlake 6-1 to gain the at-large slot.

In the semi-final game against Newport, the `Cats jumped out to

a quick 3-0 lead. Nicole Deason led off the first inning with a line-drive

single, and teammate Heather Lewis walked. Junior outfielder Luizzo followed

with a base-clearing triple. She then scored on a sacrifice bunt by Therese Duvall.

Newport scored a lone run in the bottom of the second on three

singles sandwiched by three strikeouts. Mount Si came back and added two runs

in the third, led off by a double by Luizzo. Erica Tawney followed

with a single, but Luizzo was thrown out trying to score.

Duvall reached base on an error followed by Genevieve Weber

drawing a walk, creating a bases-loaded situation. Both Tawney and

Duvall scored when Newport misplayed Lauren Davis’ ground ball.

The Wildcats scored their final run in the fourth after Laura Mijal led

off with a walk. Deason hit a nice sacrifice to advance Mijal to second,

and she made it to third on a single by Lewis. Mijal then scored when

both she and Lewis pulled off a double steal.

Newport scored a second run in the sixth on a single, walk and

sacrifice fly, but they were unable to threaten the Wildcats’ lead.

The win set up a final game with Interlake, who had defeated

Bellevue 5-1 in their first game. The Wildcats struck first with a run in the top of

the third. Deason and Lewis led off with singles and, after a fielder’s

choice, Deason scored on Tawney’s single.

Interlake tied the game in the bottom of the fourth on two walks

and two singles. The Wildcats broke open the game in the fifth, scoring four

runs while sending all nine batters to the plate. Lewis led off by reaching

base on an error. Luizzo and Tawney followed suit with singles. Then

Duvall launched a nice shot past the shortstop to score both Lewis and Luizzo.

After a walk to Weber, Duvall scored on another Interlake error. Weber

then scored when Mijal lined a single to right field.

Mount Si notched their final run in the sixth when Luizzo hit a

double to the outfield fence, her fifth hit of the day, then eventually scored

on Tawney’s ground out.

Showing her the determination that earned her KingCo honorable

mention as a freshman, Moorhead pitched all fourteen innings of the

back-to-back games, allowing just five hits in

each game. She struck out a total of eight batters and only three times in the

two games did she allow the opponents to get more than one runner on base

in an inning.

Also an important factor in the victories was the stingy Mount Si

defense, which has improved immensely over the last half of the season.

Led by their three senior infielders, Deason, Duvall and Weber, the

Wildcats committed just one error in each game, neither proving costly.

Mount Si will play their first District game this Friday at Fort Dent

in Tukwila. The first game starts at 2:15, then 5:45 and, with a win, 7:30 p.m.