‘Leave a legacy’: Back in 5A title game, Owyhee softball earns ‘hardware’ it wanted
The Owyhee softball team earned a big measure of redemption in the 5A state championship game Saturday.
The second-seeded Storm erased No. 7 Rigby’s early lead and cruised to a 13-3 victory, claiming the first state title in the program’s short history.
Owyhee, which opened last year, made its second trip to the 5A state tournament and second appearance in the championship series.
The Storm (26-5) fell to Skyview in last year’s finale, and they were determined to write a more appropriate ending to this season, coach Tess Martin said. Skyview moved down a classification this year and won the 4A title on Saturday.
“We talk a lot about having short-term memory, but at the same time, we knew what it felt like losing twice to Skyview last year and we didn’t want to feel that again,” Martin said on Saturday. “We focused on coming out strong in every game and bringing home the first-place hardware this year.”
After coming up short, all Owyhee players could think about for the past 12 months was getting back to championship weekend, senior Brooklyn Schneidt said.
“We were so young and had high expectations for ourselves last year, and losing at the end really hurt,” Schneidt said. “We’ve been grinding this year to get back to this game and win it all.”
The Storm won it all this year without suffering a loss in the double-elimination state tournament. Schneidt put a stamp on her career with a two-run home run that gave Owyhee a 10-run lead, bringing Saturday’s final game to an end in the sixth inning.
“I was excited to end the game early, but I was more excited to get to home plate and hug my teammates,” said Schneidt, who is committed to play at Western Oregon next season. “This feels really good, and I’m just excited I can leave a legacy at Owyhee.”
Schneidt, part of Owyhee’s first senior class, was far from the only player who watched the ball sail out of the park Saturday. Five of the Storms’ 12 base hits were home runs, including a solo shot from Molly Buckingham that gave Owyhee an 11-3 lead in the bottom of the sixth.
Samantha Hatzenbeller finished the game with two solo homers. Her first dinger was the first of five runs Owyhee scored in the bottom of the fourth inning to break the game open, and her second gave the Storm a 10-3 lead in the fifth.
Hatzenbeller, who went 3-for-4 on Saturday, also hit a home run off Jaylee Nef in Owyhee’s 16-3 win over Rigby in the first round on Friday.
“I’ve been working on my timing lately and keeping my hands inside the ball,” said Hatzenbeller, who leads the Storm in home runs this year. “We worked really hard in practice last week, and we were prepared for every game.”
Grace Brooks sent a three-run homer over the fence in left field to give Owyhee an 8-1 lead in the bottom of the fifth.
Rigby put a run on the board in the second inning and held a 1-0 lead into the fourth, but the Storm scored four runs in the frame and never looked back.
Owyhee has hit the ball well all season, Martin said, but the bats were especially potent during the state tournament. The Storm scored 55 runs in four games and failed to get into double digits only once — a 9-2 win over Thunder Ridge in the semifinals.
Ironically enough, Martin attributed her team’s success at the plate to her players not trying to hit home runs all the time.
“We have a lot of big bats and hit a lot of home runs, but sometimes we get ahead of ourselves and try to swing for the fences too much,” Martin said. “In the postseason, we focused on quality at bats and being quick to contact and putting the ball in play instead of trying to knock it out of the park.”
Martin said the approach paid off, even if the box score suggests her team was swinging for the fences.
“Hard swings don’t usually produce home runs,” Martin said. “It’s the easy ones that do it, so we just told the girls to take a deep breath, relax and pick their pitch.”
This story was originally published May 20, 2023 at 8:01 PM.
