The Eagle High softball team clung anxiously to the dugout fence, yelling and screaming as teammate Tara Peterson stepped to the plate.
There’s no doubt the junior second baseman was feeling the pressure, but what she and her Eagle teammates didn’t do was crack.
Peterson knocked in the game-tying run in the bottom of the seventh, sparking Eagle’s rally to a nine-inning 4-3 win over Centennial in the 5A District Three championship game Wednesday evening at Centennial High.
It was the second straight district championship for the Mustangs (24-2), who earned the district’s top seed at state and a first-round game against the District Four-Five-Six runner-up next Thursday at 3 p.m. at Idaho Falls High.
Centennial will be the district’s second seed and draws a first-round matchup with Timberline (16-10).
“I knew what I had to do and I knew I was going to do it,” Peterson said. “I just got up my confidence. I had to make the play.”
The Mustangs’ day didn’t start out as planned.
The Patriots scored three runs in the top of the second inning, taking advantage of an Eagle error and a string of bunts and hits.
With his team trailing 3-0 with two outs in the second, Eagle coach Brian White sent senior Joni Cook to the circle, taking over for freshman Jessica Holsinger.
“(Holsinger) pitched a great game against Capital (last Friday),” White said. “We’re (already) in state, so it’s a great experience for her to get a chance to play in that type of game and start it.
“She did a fantastic job for us. I would have liked to go with her for another inning or two, but we just weren’t backing her up in the field and at the plate.”
With the ball in Cook’s hands, the game went south for Centennial. Cook pitched 7· shutout innings, striking out 15 of the 21 batters she faced. She did not allow a hit.
“It was a battle, I am not going to lie,” Cook said. “They are a really good hitting team. Every person I had to take one at a time and not think about the whole thing.”
Senior shortstop and four-year letterman Brittany Wenzel said her team did a good job of fighting off the nerves when the game was on the line.
“We could have dropped our heads easily, right in the second inning,” Wenzel said. “Usually we do, but this year we’re a different team. We pulled our heads up and stayed up.”
With the game headed to extra innings after playing to a 3-3 tie through the seventh, each team got to start a runner at second base in the eighth and ninth innings.
Eagle capitalized on the opportunity in the bottom of the ninth when sophomore third baseman Julia Henrie hit the game-winning sacrifice fly to center field with no outs. Cook scored the winning run after advancing to third on a wild pitch.
“We were just really anxious and we wanted it really bad and it showed,” said sophomore left fielder Jennifer Woodson, who went 2-for-3 at the plate with two RBIs. “We pulled through.”
