“Home, sweet home” rings true for the EvCC Trojans, as they seem to be unstoppable at home. A successful season thus far has them in the race for a region championship.
The season started off with four road wins, including two strong showings against Centralia in which the Trojans outscored the opponent 22-1 and were held scoreless in just two innings.
A rough patch in the season began when two games were canceled due to poor weather. The next game for the Trojans was in the Inter-NWAC tournament where they were presented with the opportunity to face other region teams within the district.
“We played way less games than other teams so we weren’t quite put together yet on the field… It’s hard to get in a groove and find some momentum when your games are over a week apart instead of a couple days,” said freshman shortstop Emma Hansen.
The Inter-NWAC was not friendly for the Trojans as they would go winless during the tournament, taking losses against Columbia Basin, Clark and Centralia.
“We struggled a lot there, we didn’t really play as a team… we all came together and had a talk and ended up blowing out Wenatchee,” said Hansen.
The team meeting led to an offensive explosion for the Trojans the next game. They scored three runs in the first, two runs in the second, four runs in the third, and five runs in the fourth, with the game ending early after the end of the top of the fifth. Alissa Hermansen led the team with three hits with Layna Cowin, Olivia Boures, Emma Hansen and Taryn Takayoshi contributed two hits each.
“Playing at home really does make a difference, because you’re surrounded by your friends and your family… you’re set to a higher expectation,” Hansen said.
The Trojans began conference play with the next four games on their schedule, all of them ending earlier than expected, finishing in the fifth inning. Those games were against league opponents Skagit Valley and Shoreline.
After the Trojans struggled at the Inter-NWAC tournament, Head Coach Randy Smith knew what had to be done to get his team back on track for conference play.
“Get back to fundamentals and things we worked on in the fall, we wanted to fine tune stuff… with players making huge strides in what they do,” Smith said. “We just wanna get them consistent with what they’ve been doing.”
A doubleheader at home against Skagit Valley saw a stellar hitting performance. The home crowd was greeted with a two run first inning. Skagit Valley evened the score the next inning, but that would be their only time adding to the scoreboard. The Trojans took the first game 10-2 and the second game 12-4.
Another dominant offensive outing for the Trojans against Shoreline saw the team outscore the Phins 42-1 in the double header.
Facing the top team in NWAC North and rival Edmonds, the Trojans had a competitive two game matchup. Edmonds narrowly came out on top in both games, which also won them first place in NWAC north.
The Trojans bounced back, in a crucial conference matchup. EvCC took the first game 9-5 and won the second 13-8.
“I asked them to go up and attack the ball and they started doing that, well hitting is contagious and that’s when we started to turn that corner… people started to have confidence in themselves and that catches fire,” Smith said.
A double header at home had the Trojans starting slow against Pierce College. Pierce struck with a run in the first, and the scoreboard would remain unchanged until the Trojans added five on to the board at the bottom of the fifth. They won the first game 5-1. The second matchup between the two had the Trojans warmed up, and they dominated the game, winning 11-3.
The Trojans were on the road yet again for their next two matchups against Skagit Valley and Pierce. They took care of business against Skagit Valley taking the first game 7-2 and the second game 8-2.
They shut out Pierce at home in the first game, which ended in the fifth inning with a score of 10-0. The next game would be more competitive, but the Trojans still emerged victorious, winning 5-3 on the road.
Back at Gaffney Field, the Trojans welcomed Olympic to complete the season sweep. Both games would fail to reach the fully scheduled seven innings with the Trojans running away with the victory in both. They won the first game 13-4 and the second 11-2.
Right on the heels of Edmonds for first in the North, the Trojans got the chance to even the series for their last home game of the season.
“This is a wonderful group of young ladies and they should be commended for not only doing it on the field but most importantly doing it in the classroom,” Smith said.
While winning and playing well is the goal, the focus is not solely on the field.
“Our culture is you don’t get to play ball all your life but you do get to use your education. So we do put that definitely first, then the rest falls into place,” Smith said.
“Each of our student athletes has to do a minimum of 5 (tutoring) hours a week no matter what their grades are. They do team study sessions on top of that,” Smith said.
While this policy varies from team to team, Smith is relatively strict about it. Regardless of class or GPA, all team members are required to participate.
“I want everybody doing the same thing. It builds team unity,” Smith said.
Creating chemistry within a team is critical, especially when competing for a championship.
“People don’t know how hard it is to be a student athlete,” Smith said. “A lot of these girls have to work a job to pay for their education, then they have workouts two days a week and have practice every day… There’s a lot that goes into it. They make a huge commitment and it’s rewarded.”
The balance between school and athletics is a struggle that the players all share, so they navigate it together, setting the bar high on both sides.
“We have 16 players and everybody on our team is a leader,” Smith said. “They do stuff together, they work hard… they support each other. It’s hard playing at this level and continually getting good grades… they just tackle the classroom and tackle the field.”
