High School Sports

South breaks East's softball dynasty, wins state crown

A dynasty fell in Saturday's large-school state softball tournament.

South defeated East 7-4 Saturday in the if-necessary game to end the Thunderbirds streak of four straight state titles.

The meeting was the third of the day between the two teams, and the seventh of the season.

In the small school tournament, Thunder Mountain powered past Juneau 14-6 to win its first team state championship in any sport.

"We got the wins when they counted," South coach Joe White said. "That's the bottom line. But East, I'm not taking anything away from them. They played hard."

South beat East 11-7 in a morning semifinal game, but East worked its way back through the losers bracket to face South again. The Thunderbirds won the second contest 8-5.

In the championship game, Daisy Page hit a two-run homer in top of seventh to break 5-5 deadlock and force the if-necessary game.

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In total, East played four games Saturday.

"East was tough today," White said. "They came to play. When the 8-5 loss happened (we) took it hard."

Up 7-4 in the bottom of the seventh inning, South had to face East's four best hitters to seal the state win, starting with leadoff hitter Sierra Rosenzweig, who hit a leadoff home run for the Thunderbirds in the first inning.

But the Wolverines dispatched Rosenzweig on a fly ball and survived the inning without allowing a run.

Danni Desjarlais pitched 13 innings — including all seven in the if-necessary game — with five strikeouts for South over the final two games.

Her arm never seemed to tire, even in the critical seventh inning.

"Really I was just trying to keep the ball off the plate," Desjarlais told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. "I was being creative because they have a lot of really good hitters and if you leave it over the plate, they are gong to hit it."

At the plate, Dakota Underwood boosted South with a run and three RBIs on 3 for 4 hitting. Ashton Jessee scored two runs and drove in one.

South led whole way.

Rosenzweig went 2 for 4 with two runs in addition to her home run for East.

In the small school tournament, Thunder Mountain won the title in its first appearance at state.

Going into the season, Thunder Mountain had never defeated Juneau, but the Falcons went 6-0 against the Crimson Bears this season, including two wins in the state tournament.

ASAA/First National Bank softball tournaments

South Davis Park, Fairbanks

Saturday's scores

Large schools

South 11, East 7

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Chugiak 7, Wasilla 4

East 6, Chugiak 2

East 8, South 5

South 7, East 4, if-necessary game

Small schools

Thunder Mountain 5, Juneau 4

North Pole 15, Soldotna 3

Juneau 13, North Pole 11

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Thunder Mountain 14, Juneau 6, championship

All-tournament teams

Large schools

Danni Desjarlais, South

Ashton Jessee, South

Tristan Tolan, South

Daisy Page, East

Sierra Rosenzweig, East

Juliette Montgomery, Chugiak

Tori Hooper, Chugiak

Rebecca Syrup, West

Deborah Polk, Wasilla

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Small schools

Alondra Echiverri, Thunder Mountain

Taylor Beardslee, Thunder Mountain

Morgan Balovich, Juneau

Sami Good, Juneau

Amanda Norton, North Pole

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Karissa Ramos, North Pole

Kelley Ragan, Hutchison

Danielle Hills, Soldotna

McKinzie Needham, Homer

Stephan Wiebe

Stephan Wiebe writes about all things Alaska sports.

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