Owyhee softball follows in boys basketball’s footsteps with district championship in first year
BOISE - Owhyee High School sophomore pitcher Mantha Hatzenbeller didn’t want the boys to be the only ones.
And they won't be.
Two and a half months after the boys basketball team did it, the softball team accomplished the same feat with a district title in its first year of existence following a 7-5 win against Eagle in the Class 5A District III championship game Friday at Borah High School.
The Storm (20-7) coincidently join the Mustangs as the only 5A Southern Idaho Conference program to win a district championship in its first year. Eagle did so when it opened in 1996.
And while the Owyhee girls celebrates, so did that group of boys. Earlier Friday, basketball coach Andy Harrington sent softball coach Tess Martin a text message sayig his team would be there to watch them try and make history as well.
"They (basketball players) got a lot of recognition. They were young, too. Everyone was excited and crazy about it," Hatzenbeller said. "We were like, 'They’re not going to be the only champions in this school. We’re going to come back and we’re going to be them.'"
But the softball team’s championship might be even more impressive.
Unlike the basketball team, it doesn’t have an NCAA Division I commit on the roster, or a top-30 national recruit. In fact, with no seniors, they didn't even get to play together last summer.
The first time the Storm all played an actual game was March 11 - the season opener against Nampa.
The 15-man roster consisted of five ninth and eight sophomores, including Hatzenbeller, who was an all-5A SIC first-team selection at Rocky Mountain last season. The Grizzlies were the state runners-up that season, too.
"I knew a bunch of those girls (JV) were going to transfer and bring their talent over here," Hatzenbeller said. "I knew I wanted what was best for me and what was going to be more successful."
Most of Owyhee’s roster is comprised of girls who would normally go to Rocky Mountain, Meridian or Eagle. The school was built to help alleviate the student overflow in those schools.
Even Martin was at Eagle last season as the junior varsity coach. She had no high school varsity head coaching experience before taking the job last April. But she's brought along a wealth of knowledge as a former captain for North Carolina State. She led the Wolfpack to the first ACC title in school history in 2006.
"I’ve gone through that as a player emotionally, and I’ve seen it happen. I’ve been in it," Martin said. "Now being on the coaching side is totally different. Way more stressful. A lot of things out of your control. But yeah it definitely helped me prepare for this situation."
A situation that despite being picked third in the coaches preseason poll, saw them go through the growing pains that you’d expect from a first-year program. The Storm started the season off 2-3.
However, they responded with an eight-game winning streak and didn’t lose consecutive games for the rest of the season.
"I think it goes back to the expectations before the season with all the talk about what they were expecting Owyhee softball to do based on the individuals that we had coming in," Martin said. "We had to remind our student-athletes that there are no expectations. We have goals that are going to completely shift and change throughout the year."
But after finishing third in the regular season and getting through the first two rounds at districts, thoughts quickly shifted to a district championship.
That goal didn’t get off to the greatest start Friday, though. Especially for Hatzenbeller who hit the first two batters she faced in the circle and gave up three runs in the top of the first inning for an early 3-0 hole.
Yet, she quickly answered with a three-run blast to left field in the bottom half of the inning to tie the game at 3-3.
"In the beginning, I was a little nervous. And I’m never a nervous person," Hatzenbeller said. "I work well under pressure. But going into hitting (that inning), I was like, ‘' kind of gave away those three runs to Eagle, and I’m going to make it up to them. I’ve got to pay them back. It’s my job.'"
Hatzenbeller held the Mustang (16-9) bats in check for the remainder of her time in the circle and exited with a 6-3 lead in the fifth inning.
Freshman catcher McKennsa Schab broke the 3-3 stalemate in the bottom of the fourth inning with a hard hit past the shortstop before fellow freshman SoBella Malliarodakis stepped to the plate with two outs and the bases loaded. Right as her father was heard saying, "This is a big-time pressure moment," she slapped a shot to left field, driving in two more runs to extend the lead, 6-3.
"Just stay relaxed," said Malliarodakis, when asked what was going through her mind during the at-bat. "If you get too built up, then you’re just going to hit a ball into the ground.
"It felt pretty good."
Schab added an insurance run in the bottom of the fifth with a double off the right centerfield wall to extend the lead to 7-3. And it looked like Owyhee would cruise from there after Eagle left two runners stranded in the top of the sixth inning. But its inexperience showed up just a bit in the last half inning.
Freshman Grace Brooks walked Lizzy Tommasini before surrendering a single to Emry Woods to start the seventh. Libby Dennis and Grace Hein then both drove in runs to cut the deficit down to 7-5.
The Mustangs actually had the winning run on with two outs, the bases loaded and Hayleight Oliver, who already had two hits earlier, at the plate. But Brooks forced her into a chopper to second for the easy out and the school’s second improbable title in one year was in the books.
"We knew that we would have to prove ourselves because no one would have seen us coming this far," Hatzenbeller said. "So we just had to have fun and play our hardest. And, honestly, it proved itself and led to this."
(Featured photo by Julian Jenkins)
