“We won’t stop hitting.” Undefeated Bonney Lake softball stomping 3A PCL competition
At first glance, the numbers pop like a build-your-own baseball team in a video game. But in a nightmarish reality for 3A PCL competition, they’re Bonney Lake’s hitting statistics.
Through 14 games — and 14 wins — eight everyday Panthers are batting .426 or better (minimum 43 at-bats). Junior center fielder Lauryn Lee is an unthinkable 37-for-53 (.698), and senior shortstop Jess Eaton has a team-high five home runs with 34 RBI.
In the league’s softball landscape, it’s Bonney Lake – then everyone else. The Panthers haven’t lost a regular-season 3A PCL game since the league’s inception in 2016-17. Look back to May 10, 2016 – an 8-0 loss to Enumclaw – for Bonney Lake’s last league loss, the final season of a now-defunct 3A SPSL.
83 league games ago.
That’s why Tuesday’s demolition at Spanaway Lake, 17-0, felt like another day at the office. Impossible to overstate, Bonney Lake scalded softball after softball in every direction and each of the lineup’s top five hitters notched multi-hit games.
“We won’t stop hitting,” Panthers coach Kate Zender said. “I have to tell them to calm it down sometimes. It’s down the lineup. This year, teams… they’ve got four or five great batters, and it kind of drops off. But we’re strong all the way down.
“They’re all just hitting the crap out of the ball.”
The moonshot of Tuesday’s game was Eaton’s team-high fifth homer. With two outs and a runner aboard in the fourth inning, Eaton dropped the barrel on Spanaway Lake starter Cheyenne Heimlich’s first offering and launched a gargantuan blast to left-center field, clearing the fence by some 30 feet.
“Right off the bat, you just knew,” Zender said.
Of Eaton’s five homers, was it the farthest? Likely, she admits.
“I always focus (on trying) to place the ball,” Eaton said. “Just finding a spot, and trying to hit it there.”
MEET THE PANTHERS
Lauryn Lee’s routine flyout to right field Tuesday ended a momentous, possibly-historic stretch: the junior outfielder reached safely in 13 consecutive at-bats, a streak that spanned four games.
A dangerous slap-hitter from the left side, Lee embodies a “tough out.” The on-base streak featured Lee’s 5-for-5 day over Lakes on April 9, adding a walk in a game where Bonney Lake piled 31 runs.
“She has been hitting 1.000 for the last however many games. … She finally got out today,” Zender laughed.
Is it a school record? Bonney Lake’s coach is unsure – but it almost has to be.
Though Lee is the always-aboard contact guru and Eaton is the leading home-run hitter, they consider first baseman Laina Baker the team’s true ‘power hitter,’ thanks to four home runs and nine extra-base hits.
Sophomore outfielder Morgan Berg is batting 23-for-45 (.511) with four doubles. Freshman infielder Zhosi Pool enjoys a breakout first season, now 16-for-36 (.444).
“It’s crazy,” Lee said of the lineup. “But over the past few years, it’s been like that.”
Throw in catcher Riley Shaw (.469) and outfielder Kiera Thomas (.452 AVG), and this Bonney Lake lineup becomes torturous to navigate.
“We all have a specific role for the team,” Eaton said. “I think we also know our roles, and we all do very well filling the jobs we’re supposed to be doing. We all know that we have each other’s backs.
“If something doesn’t quite go as planned, we’ll be there for each other.”
There hasn’t been such turbulence, at least yet. The Panthers have steamrolled to 10-plus runs in every game, and in non-league contests with top local opponents, Bonney Lake has risen above the level of competition. It took down 4A-Kentwood convincingly, 12-1, on March 16 (Conquerors All-State arm Sarah Wright did not pitch); a week later, Eaton homered twice in Bonney Lake’s 15-8 win over Adna, the defending 2B state champions.
In the shadow of Bonney Lake’s slugging prowess, perhaps unfairly, is the emergence of lefty starter Aspyn Evanson, who disarmed Spanaway Lake across Tuesday’s five-inning, complete-game shutout. Sophomore arm Shay Hermansen mixes effective secondary stuff to help form Bonney Lake’s “one-two punch” rotation, but it was Evanson who dominated the Sentinels at Spanaway Lake High School. She issued five walks, but struck out Talia Rhodes to escape a bases-loaded jam in the fourth inning and surrendered just two total hits with five strikeouts.
Evanson’s up for any and every challenge, Zender said. Naturally, most of her starts last five innings as Bonney Lake’s offense rolls toward the ten-run mercy rule.
Fresh off her dazzling start with a vicious fastball, Zender and the coaching staff told Evanson to run the outfield for stamina work, designed to prepare her for longer starts in more-competitive postseason games.
“Yep, I’m on it,” Evanson replied.
“She knows that there’s a lot of weight put on the pitcher’s shoulders, and she’s got that competitive nature,” Zender said. “She wants that.”
‘IT’S PART OF THE TRADITION’
Zender remembers the feeling of securing her first berth to the WIAA state tournament as part of Bonney Lake’s program, then as an assistant.
“I remember being pumped,” she recalled, the obvious reaction. What confused her was the nonchalance displayed around her – as if the team had acknowledged the job was unfinished.
“I think it’s part of the tradition,” Zender, now in her fifth season at the helm, told The News Tribune. “When I came (here) … It was just kind of an expectation that you do well in the league, try to make it to state. I’ve been fortunate to carry that on.
“Kids know when they come here, we’re here to win. We’re here to do the best we can. And they also just love the game. I can’t emphasize it enough. If they love the game and love being at practice with everyone, they end up working harder and doing better.”
Where does this season’s Bonney Lake squad rank among those Zender has guided?
“To me, they’re surprisingly ranked up there,” she said.
Why the surprise?
The Panthers graduated a pair of TNT First-Team All-Area seniors in 2023. Ace pitcher Bella Carazo (1.93 ERA, 168 K) and outfielder Kyla Cross (.467 AVG, 16 HR) headlined a senior class that guided Bonney Lake to the 3A quarterfinals.
Thoughts of a down year crept into consideration. That is, until the offense shattered them.
“We’ve all gelled and bonded very well,” Eaton said. “After losing the seniors from last year, like Bella Carazo and Kyla (Cross), Aspyn has risen to the occasion this year to fill in Bella’s shoes. And Laina and I have taken over Kyla’s spot as the power hitter.”
“Anything’s possible,” Zender said. “We’re in it. … There’s a light at the end of the tunnel, and we see it.”
