By the time the top of the seventh inning had arrived last Friday evening, Lake Washington High School pitcher Tori Bivens was in a zone.
The junior finished her complete game with 15 strikeouts and two RBIs as the Kangs softball team beat Juanita, 5-1, in a 3A KingCo League rivalry showdown. The game was played between two of the most dominating teams from last season, at the Husky Softball Stadium in Seattle, on March 25.
Bivens — who routinely shouted and chanted each time Lake Washington closed out a scoreless inning — made the final out on a fly ball, and celebrated the win with a cluster of Kangs in front of the home dugout.
“She gets pretty fired up, and she’ll get there a majority of the time, and little more for a good rivalry like this and championship games and stuff like that,” Lake Washington coach Tracie Tawney said. “She brings it to another level and we sometimes have to rein her in a little bit, but I’d rather have that than somebody that was dull, right?”
The cross-town rivals account for a pair of state championships during the last two years. Lake Washington won the Class 2A title in 2014, and moved up to Class 3A the next year. Last season, Juanita struggled early on before going on a run in the state tournament and coming home with the championship.
In addition, there’s a fairly high level of familiarity between the two groups of players.
“They’ve grown up playing little league together and so there’s a tension between each other, but it makes it fun,” Juanita coach Traci Odegard said. “It’s always a close game between us.”
For Bivens, who gave up three hits in the game and only one hit after the first frame, the tension was visible inning by inning.
“I try to bring the same level to every game, but when it comes to Juanita, there’s a little added excitement because they’re our local rivals,” she said.
Rebels Kristina Warford and Lexi Blackburn each picked up hits in the first inning, helping the Rebels to grab a 1-0 lead. Juanita committed two errors in the bottom of the first inning, and Lake Washington players Kylisa Hull and Hannah Walker went on to score the tying and go-ahead runs.
“We’ve just got to finish a game and keep hitting,” Odegard said. “I’ve told my kids that defense wins games, and we take away those two errors we had, and it could have been totally different.”
Marissa Ewald and Bivens both had RBIs in the bottom of the third inning, and Bivens firmly controlled the game down the stretch.
A game in the shadow of the University of Washington’s football stadium was a first for both teams, but not for Tawney, who played for the Huskies and opened the door for the game to be played at the college facility.
“The administration [at Lake Washington] was trying to look for a way to get us that big-league experience, and UW is as close as you’re going to get around here without professional softball,” she said.
Tawney texted UW softball coach Heather Tarr, and the plan fell into place.
The stands were far from full on Friday, but a decent number of fans made the trip to see the Kangs and Rebels play under the lights. Odegard said she hoped to make it somewhat of a tradition.
“[The players] were so excited, and it’s such an opportunity and experience for these girls to play here,” Odegard said. “It’s just unbelievable.”
