A year ago, the Tigard softball team went on an improbable playoff run, making the state semifinals as a No. 19 seed, the first time in more than a decade such a high seed made it that far.
But Tigers Head Coach Pete Kostel isn’t interested in looking back at last year when it comes to his current team.
“This year’s team is building its own identity,” he said. “So we’re trying to let them say, “Hey, this is the 2025 team,’ and they’re doing a good job of that and showing their character. They really play for each other, and that’s an awesome thing.”
Coming off the run to the state semifinals, things started a little rocky for Tigard this season with four straight losses, but part of that was by design of sorts.
“We’ve played our toughest (non-league) season since I’ve been here,” Kostel said. “The girls fought hard. I knew that this group could play at that level.”
The Tigers appear to have turned a corner after the early string of losses, winning five of their last eight, as of our press deadline. The most recent win came in Tigard’s opening game of league play, an 8-1 win on the road at Lake Oswego.
The Lake Oswego featured a pretty typical winning formula for the Tigers: a great start on the mound by senior Avery Rust and offensive contributions up and down the lineup. Rust went all seven innings in the game, giving up one run on two hits and striking out 13.
Rust was the winning pitcher in all three of Tigard’s road wins in the playoffs last year en route to the semifinal game, and she’s off to an impressive start to her senior campaign.
“It’s pretty special and sometimes you can get complacent because she’s just a workhorse out there,” Kostel said. “It’s just something special for me to be around her. She’s a competitor and is huge for us.”
But Rust doesn’t just contribute on the mound. Last year, she was named to the All-Three River League second team as a pitcher and an infielder.
In the Lake Oswego win, Rust made things a bit easier on herself with four RBIs, including three on a bases-clearing double to break things open late. Fellow senior Adrieanna Perez chipped in two RBIs.
Tigard also got key hits in the game from senior Claire Masters and junior Kiarra Belli, two players Kostel said are key catalysts for the team’s success.
“They’ve been in the program for a while, and now they’re in positions to lead the program,” he said. “A lot of the older girls on the team have come up playing together as freshmen and in JV, and now they’re playing together here. They’ve seen how our program does things, and it shows them how to be good leaders when it’s their turn.”
Kostel thinks that also has played a role in the team’s greatest strength so far this year.
“Our team chemistry is really strong right now,” he said. “They believe in each other.”
