By Quint Turner

The Meadowdale Lady Mavs continue their undefeated streak in conference games with an extra-innings win over the Mountlake Terrace Hawks. Alyssa Reuble not only pitched all eight innings, but she also drove in Tiffany DeWayne for the game-winning run in the bottom of the eighth. Rene Bos also pitched the whole game for the Hawks as well, and notched eight strikeouts in 7.33 innings of work, but it wasn’t enough. T

he Hawks took a 1-0 lead in the top of the eighth when Hannah Fickle hit a ground ball, with runners on first and third, to second baseman Ciarra Hart, who threw the ball to home to try and catch Sammy Harter, but Harter beat the throw. DeWayne got the game tied at 1-1 when she bunted to third baseman Baisch with runners on first and third — and Baisch threw the ball away. Hart, who was on third at the time, made it home easily, and it became 1-1.

The game was a pitcher’s duel for the first seven innings. Hannah Wilcox led off the game by getting on base on an error by centerfielder DeWayne. She was moved to second on a 2-3 fielder’s choice hit by Fickle, and Maddy Kristjanson had a runner in scoring position to work with. Kristjanson popped out to Reuble for out number two, and then Reuble got clean-up hitter Baisch to ground out to end the inning. Bos laid the Mavs down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the first. DeWayne grounded out, Haili Tayler struck out, and then Reuble grounded out to end the inning.

In the top of the second, Reuble also sat down Hawk batters in order. Bos led off with a pop out, Kelsey Watson hit a line drive straight to Ashley Brooke, and Amanda Aversano grounded out to end the inning. Bos got Brooke to strike out to lead off the bottom of the second inning, but then Rebecca Wright drew a walk for the Mavericks’ first base runner. Hailey Costello grounded into a 4-6 fielder’s choice that got her on first, but Wright was out at second. Costello immediately stole second, and with two outs, two on, and a 2-2 count, Reuble’s sister, Julia,  struck out to end the second inning.

Alyssa Reuble struck out the side in the top of the third, but she also gave up her first hit to Wilcox with two outs, ending the no-hitter. Still, no damage was done. In the bottom of the third, DeWayne got on board with an infield hit and two outs, and then Taylor followed up with a walk. Alyssa Reuble had runners on first and second with two outs, but she struck out looking to end the inning. This out would be the first of 12 straight batters that Bos retired.

The score remained 0-0 going into the top of the fourth. Alyssa Reuble had to pitch to the 3-4-5 hitters in the fourth, but she made it look easy. She struck Kristjanson out swinging, then punched out Baisch looking, and finally got Bos to ground out to end the inning. The bottom of the fourth started promisingly for the Mavs. Brooke hit a line drive to center field that hit off the top of the fence and stayed on the field. Brooke tried going to second base, but centerfielder Aversano gunned her down with a great throw for the first out of the inning. Wright followed by striking out, and then Costello laid into a ball that got caught in centerfield by Aversano. The game went to the top of the fifth with the game still scoreless.

Reuble continued to deal in the fifth. She got Kelsey Watson to fly out, then Aversano grounded out, and finally Sammy Harter struck out to end the inning. The Mavs continued to slump at the plate. Julia Reuble struck out swinging, Hart grounded out, and then Madison Buchea grounded out to end the bottom of the fifth. Alyssa Reuble continued her strike-out streak, retiring eleven straight batters in the game. Cassandra Carlker flew out to lead off and then Wilcox grounded out for the first two outs. Fickle hit a line drive that looked like it was going to end the hitless streak, but Hart made an amazing over-the-shoulder catch while running into right field to end the inning. In the bottom of the sixth, DeWayne struck out looking, Taylor grounded out, and Alyssa Reuble grounded out in a pattern suspiciously like the bottom of the fifth. The game went to the seventh at nil-nil.

Kristjanson led off the seventh by striking out, but the next batter, Baisch, broke the streak of 11 Hawks retired in a row. She knocked a base hit over third baseman Taylor. Bos came up to bat and hit a groundball straight to Alyssa Reuble, who threw the ball to second for the lead runner. However, shortstop Costello caught the ball off the base, and Baisch was ruled safe at second. Bos was also safe at first, and there were runners on first and second with one out. Watson advanced both runners with a ground out to Alyssa Reuble, and it was up to Aversano to drive in a run.

Aversano drove the count to 2-2 before Reuble blew a fastball right by her to end the inning, and the Mavs had a chance to get a walk-off win in the bottom of the seventh. Brooke led off by striking out on a pitch above her head, and then Wright popped out for the second out. Finally, Costello broke Bos’s streak of 12 straight batters retired by hitting a base hit to centerfield. However, Juiia Reuble grounded out to end the inning. The game went into extra innings to decide a winner, with the game still knotted at 0-0.

The Hawks broke the shutout in the top of the eighth. Harter led off with a single to rightfield, and was moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Carlker. Wilcox knocked a basehit to left field, and there were runners on first and third with one out. Fickle hit a ground ball to Hart and Harter started to hustle home. Hart had to make a snap judgment, and tried to throw out Harter at home, but Harter beat the tag to make it 1-0 Hawks. The bases got loaded when Kristjanson rocketed a base hit into leftfield, but Wilcox was not waved home. Cleanup hitter Baisch came up to the plate with the bases loaded, and hit a soft line drive that was called an infield fly, and there were two outs. Bos had a chance to make her job easier, but she hit a line drive straight to Hart to end the inning. But the Hawks took the first lead of the game at 1-0, and the Mavs had to answer in the bottom of the eighth.

And answer they did. Hart continued her great game with a double to left field. Buchea came up and hit a sharp ground ball to shortstop Kristjanson, but the ball bounced on her and hit her in the chest instead of the glove. The ball bounced away and Buchea was safe on first while Hart was standing on third base. DeWayne came up next, and tried a squeeze play. The bunt went to third base, so Hart stayed where she was when Baisch looked back to hold her. Baisch then attempted to gun down the speedy DeWayne, but her throw went over first baseman Watson, and Hart scored, Buchea went to third, and DeWayne wound up on second base.

Taylor was up next for the Mavs, and she hit a ground ball straight at Baisch. Buchea went towards home for a second, but then realized who had the ball. She was tagged by Baisch while trying to get back to third base, and there were runners on first and second with one out instead of the bases loaded and no outs. That proved to be no problem for Alyssa Reuble. On a 3-1 count, she hit a frozen rope over second baseman Wilcox’s head and into right field. DeWayne easily scored from second and the game was over. The Mavs came back and won 2-1 over the Hawks in eight innings.

With the win, the Mavs improve to 13-2 on the year and are now 10-0 in conference. The team has a two-and-half-game lead on both Glacier Peak and Shorecrest for first place in the Wesco 3A South division. They play next on Friday at Marysville-Getchell, at 4 p.m. and then play Glacier Peak and Shorecrest in back-to-back games next week. As for the Hawks, they fall to 10-7 on the year (6-4 in conference), and play next against Glacier Peak on Friday at home at 4 p.m.

Sports correspondent Quint Turner is a student at Meadowdale High School.