Meadowdale scored six runs in the bottom of the first and never looked back on its way to winning the state 3A high school softball championship in Lacey. The 10-0 victory over Enumclaw — the first in school history — followed five years of close calls, including a third-place finish last year.

“We came into districts and said we had seven games to win and we just checked them off one by one,” said an elated coach Dennis Hopkins.

The six-run outburst was even more impressive given that it came against much-hyped Hornets pitcher Quinn Reidenbach and an Enumclaw team that had won 21 straight coming into the contest. “Quinn is the real deal, but we didn’t let her celebrity status get to us,” said Hopkins of the UMass signee and 2015 Gatorade player of the year. Reidenbach did strikeout nine Mavs, but also yielded 11 hits and a season-high 10 runs.

The Mavericks’ final run, which invoked the mercy rule, came in the bottom of the sixth inning on a high, opposite-field fly by Emma Helm that scored Julia Reuble from first. “I just hit the ball and I thought she (the fielder) might catch it,” Helm said of the hit that produced her fourth RBI of the game. “When I saw Julia scoring, I didn’t think it was real at first.”

Mavs’ pitcher Lauren Dent kept the Hornets off balance, giving up just three hits and throwing her fourth shutout in seven playoff games. Dent, a junior, yielded only 5 total runs. “When she gets on a run, a little flame gets inside her and she just ignites,” Hopkins said. Dent acknowledged she was aware of who she was facing in Reidenbach: “I knew she was good, but I just went out and tried to outpitch her.”

After a 1-2-3 first for Enumclaw, the Mavericks’ offense got busy. Kaitlyn Webster worked a full-count walk and Savann Spratt was hit by a pitch. Following a strikeout, Helm hit a line-drive single that scored Webster. The next batter, Lauren Wallace, hit a 3-2 pitch not only over the 200-foot home run fence, but up against the 300-foot outer fence. “When I was rounding from first to second I saw it bouncing towards the second fence and I was thinking, ‘wow, that’s pretty far,'” Wallace said.

The Mavericks weren’t done. Kaylee Williams singled, Samantha Gregoryk doubled and after Madison Buchea was hit, Roberts — after nearly fouling out — singled in both Williams and Gregoryk, giving Meadowdale a six-run cushion. “I came out of the first inning pretty nervous but when we scored six runs, I calmed down,” Dent said.

Meadowdale added two runs in the fourth when Helm hit a two- out, two-run homer to left center to score Reuble and one in the fifth on an RBI single by Gregoryk that scored Williams. After Enumclaw went down in the top of the sixth, the Mavericks needed one run to end the game. Thanks to Helm and her teammates, the championship trophy is headed home to the Meadowdale trophy case.

“I can’t stop crying,” Helm said.

“There’s not a better feeling in the world,” Hopkins adde.

ENUMCLAW HORNETS (21-2) 000 000 — 0

MEADOWDALE MAVERICKS (24-3) 600 211 — 10

— By Jeff Smarr

Editor’s note: A photo gallery of the championship game will be coming soon.