1 day Ago By Dan Rosenfield [email protected]
What the Monarchs have been doing on the softball field recently has been unreal. Support local news coverage and the people who report it by subscribing to The Daily News. The shutout seven teams in a row from April 2-23, outscoring their opponents 94-0 in that stretch.
In those seven games, they had a 28-0 win and three 15-0 wins, including to Woodland, who is tied for second place in the 2A Greater St. Helens League. The streak was broken on Friday with a 17-2 win over Hockinson.
Mark Morris' Makenzie Henthorn gets ready to swing her bat in a game against Woodland on Wednesday, April 23 at 7th Avenue Park. Mark Morris is undefeated at 15-0 overall and 10-0 in league play. The Monarchs are ranked No.
1 in the Rating Percentage Index (RPI) — which is a statistical system used to comparatively rank teams — for the 2A classification. They have already beaten both sixth-ranked Ridgefield and the 20th-ranked Beavers twice. They also have victories over 3A schools Kelso — who is 17th in the RPI for 3A — as well as Heritage and Evergreen.
It seems like nobody can get in their way. “I think I kind of feel that way ..
.” Mark Morris coach Chris Mejia said. Let’s take a look at just how dominant the Monarchs were during the seven-game shutout streak and see if anyone can pose a challenge to them the rest of the way.
Makenzie Henthorn always delivers in the circle. She pitched in all seven shutouts and threw three no-hitters, generated 77 strikeouts and only surrendered eight hits despite most of the games ending early due to the mercy rule. She only threw for two innings each against Hudson’s Bay and Washougal as Keira McGinley and Shyanne Sellers came in for relief duty, respectively.
Mark Morris' Makenzie Henthorn winds up for a pitch in a game against Woodland on Wednesday, April 23 at 7th Avenue Park. Mejia said that he’s heard some chatter roaming about that Mark Morris wouldn’t be as good or wouldn’t win some of these games without Henthorn’s heroics in the circle, but teams still need to score runs to win. “Makenzie's phenomenal, she is,” he said .
.. “She keeps it 0-0 until we wake up and say, ‘Oh we need to start helping her out.
’” Her teammates have done nothing but help her out. The Monarchs had 83 hits during the shutout streak and had double-digit hits in five of the seven games, topping out at 19 hits in the 28-0 win over Hudson’s Bay. And 15 out of those 83 hits were home runs.
Henthorn led the way with five while Paisley Fraidenburg and Mikaila Warfield each had three. Grace Woodbridge hit two while Shyanne Sellers and Keira McGinley each hit one during the dominant stretch. Henthorn and Fraidenburg each had a game with two homers.
Mark Morris' Paisley Fraidenburg swings her bat in a game against Woodland on Wednesday, April 23 at 7th Avenue Park. “My one through six hitters are just deadly right now,” he said. “The ball is literally a beach ball to them.
” Against Woodland on April 23, the Monarchs had 14 hits. Seven girls had at least one hit, five girls had multiple hits and three different players hit home runs. “(I’m) at a loss for how we (can) compete with that,” Woodland coach Tom Christensen said.
Looking at the rest of their regular-season schedule, only one game really stands out: at home against Prairie — who is ranked seventh in the RPI for 3A — on Tuesday. Besides that, the Monarchs should have no issues running through their opposition. When: 4 p.
m., Wednesday Where: 7th Avenue Park Overall record: 14-0 League record: 9-0 *Editor's note: Mark Morris plays on Monday after the TDN deadline, so its records will change. Once they get to districts, however, things will get monumentally more challenging.
They’ll have to go through Tumwater and Aberdeen, who ranked No. 2 and No. 3 in the RPI, respectively.
They’ll surely want to get revenge on Tumwater after the Thunderbirds knocked them out of districts last year with a 14-1 thumping . However, Christensen believes that the Monarchs stand tall over those squads. Mark Morris' Megan Fugleberg swings her bat in a game against Woodland on Wednesday, April 23 at 7th Avenue Park.
“My honest opinion is from what I’ve heard, those teams also have great pitchers, (but) I feel like Mark Morris is a little bit better at everything,” he said. If the Monarchs can get through those two teams to claim the district championship, there truly will be nobody that can stop them. Mejia said the goal at the beginning of the season was to place at state, and although that hasn’t changed, perhaps the Monarchs can go even further.
“They're starting to realize,” Mejia said, “we really do have a legitimate shot of winning this whole thing ...
” Editor's note: All of the RPI rankings are as of Wednesday before the TDN deadline and could change. Check out more coverage at x.com/DRosenfieldTDN .
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