Buck, Martinis help Tommies start Wesco play off with an impressive win

MARYSVILLE — Coach KT Allyn calls it green light time.

The M-P coach was just sitting back and letting her hitters swing away against Snohomish, with ample results as the Tommies defeated the Panthers 11-1 in Wesco Conference play March 23.

“They were really in a rhythm and a flow,” Allyn said about her hitters. “And that sort of went all the way through the line-up.”

Eight different Tomahawks reached base to help M-P (2-2 overall) start conference play with a victory, but the day was highlighted by Morgan Martinis and Katie Buck, who hit a combined 4-for-5 with four RBIs and four runs scored.

“They were a good duo to have back-to-back today for us,” Allyn said.

Martinis started an eight-run rally with her first of two doubles in the second inning. Buck then drove her in with her first of two triples in the game. Overall, the Lady Tomahawks recorded seven hits — three for extra bases — and a walk in the inning.

“We all just wanted to go out there and hit — and that’s what we did,” Buck said. “Once Morgan got that first hit, you kind of get that feeling like ‘I can do that.’ It sort of lightened the mood.”

The Tommies made the Panthers’ outfielders well-aqainted with the right-center field landscape, as five of their six extra-base hits in the game either hit that section of the wall, or came close.

While Snohomish — which used three pitchers — was having a difficult time keeping M-P in the infield, Tommies pitcher Riley Fritz seemed to get stronger as the game went on. After walking a batter in the second and third inning, she calmed down to finish six innings, allowing just one run and striking out six.

The mark of a good pitcher is throwing quality pitches with runners on, and Fritz seemed almost more comfortable with Panthers on the bases, throwing a first-pitch strike to each Panther that came to the plate with a runner on base.

“She’s good at getting ahead of the count,” Allyn said. “And she thrives on pressure. You don’t have to worry about her in tense situations.”

Behind Martinis and Buck, the Tommies scored another two runs in the fourth and put the mercy rule in effect on Megan Rollings’ sixth inning double that scored Fritz from first base.

Fritz, who pitched her second complete game of the year, also went 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored.