Tuesday May 12^th, was a game for the record books. While tied in the standings, the understood they needed to win in order to make it to districts. To make the game even more intense, it was the girls’ “Senior Night” and “Teacher Appreciation Night.”

“I was nervous at first but we started to get into the swing of it and started competing to try and get the win. The teachers and fans really added to our fight,” outfielder Rebecca Willis said.

As the rain took a break for the game to start, the Grizzlies were ready to face a higher ranked Lynwood that had beaten them 8-5 earlier this season.

In in the bottom of the first inning Aurora Ellison hit a solo homerun to tie the score 1-1, but Lynwood answered with one of their own to up the 2-1 in the second.  After several hard innings the score emerged into an 8-1 gap and almost looked like the end to the grizzly’s season.

The fifth inning started  and the defense held the Royals with runners on base. When the grizzlies took their turn at the plate, the rally monkeys came out. After five, the score was game 4-8. The grizzlies weren’t done yet and had another shut out inning holding the Royals at eight. It wasn’t long for Glacier Peak to string hits together and tie the game up in the bottom of the 6th.

This was it, the last inning and all the pressure was on Lynwood to put something together and come back, but they just couldn’t. Three up, three down for the Royals. With one out as the grizzlies started their victory run, Lauren Nicksic drew a walk. Up next, Rebecca Willis gots a shot to the outfield for a single keeping the dream alive and moving Nicksic to second base.

“I felt really calm which was really surprising and then I hit that first pitch. I knew what I needed to do,” Willis said. Then came the winning at bat by Nina Kim. Nina started her at bat off with a passed ball that allowed the runners to advance to third and second and victory was almost in their grasp. Nina Kim ripped a line drive to right-center field and the grizzlies won with the score 9-8.

The Glacier Peak softball team now relies on the end of tonight’s game between Lynwood and Edmonds-Woodway to see what rank they will have going into districts.