LACEY — Rogue Everson has played softball for nearly five years and she’s never had a weekend quite like this one.
The Olympia High School outfielder, who will be a senior this upcoming school year, had one home run to her name entering this week’s Cascades National Championship. But, if you ask her, it didn’t really count since it was an inside-the-park homer.
Not quite the same bolt of energy as watching a dinger elevate over the fence and being mobbed by teammates at home plate.
In a three-game span across two days in the 16-and-under tournament, Everson boosted her career home run total from one to four.
The first one came on Thursday in Washington Thunder 16U’s third game of four that day, and she followed it up with another bomb in her team’s fourth and final game later that day. She hit her third of the tournament on Friday, but the first one was the most memorable for Everson.
“It was pretty exciting. It was cool to know that I can do that,” she said.
Three of Everson’s seven hits in nine games this tournament, including an exhibition on Wednesday, came via the long ball. She drove in nine runs for the Washington Thunder 16U team that finished with a fourth-place trophy, going 6-2, including a 5-0 start.
This club season, which dates back to May 30, is Everson’s first with Washington Thunder 16U. She is batting .400 and slugging .700 with 18 RBIs and 20 runs scored, and the team chemistry has allowed her to play with more confidence than ever. Everson didn’t see much playing time with Olympia as a junior, but her confident and powerful swing will certainly be appealing for the Bears.
“This team is really fun. I’ve definitely noticed that I’m more confident when I’m having fun with them,” Everson said of her club team. “Everyone gets along really well. The coaches are friends with us. I’m grateful to be on the team and have fun with them. I hope this confidence reflects in high school ball, especially in my senior year.”
Everson wasn’t the only local athlete helping the University Place-based squad to hardware, as Capital’s Lexie Dura, Timberline’s Brookelyn Read and Tumwater’s Jenna Larson also played significant roles in the tournament success.
Read, an everyday starting outfielder for Timberline entering her senior year, has been an efficient hitter for Washington Thunder all summer. She’s hitting at a .438 clip with 28 hits, six doubles, two triples, two homers and 22 RBIs. In the Cascades National Championship, she recorded multiple three-hit games and drove in a total of 10 runs, including hitting a homer against Langford Friday.
Read has been one of the veteran leaders for a team that broke out of a long losing streak to win a 16U USSSA state championship in June and then place fourth at Cascades Nationals this weekend.
“To place fourth, it means a lot to me because it shows how much we’re improving as a team and working together,” Read said. “It shows how close we’ve gotten as a team, as well. We’ve done team bonding and we mess around a lot at practice. In this half of the season, we haven’t been so hard on ourselves, and we’ve had fun and played loose.”
Read is no stranger to high-pressure situations in softball. This past spring, she was part of a Timberline Blazers team that made a deep run in the state tournament and also played in the district and league title games. While the stakes are different in club ball, Read still delivered time and time again for Washington Thunder in preparation for what should be an exciting 2027 Blazers season.
“I love playing for Timberline because we go to state and districts and it gets me all those high-pressure moments,” she said. “Everyone’s watching you. Every play means something. Coming into summer ball, you don’t have as much pressure. But I still have all of that behind me, so I know I can do it.”
Dura’s pitching for Washington Thunder this summer has been a big reason for the team’s tournament victories. She’s not being relied upon nearly as much as Capital needed her this past spring, as she pitched all but seven innings for the Cougars. But in 40.2 innings pitched this summer, Dura has a stellar 2.410 earned run average and has struck out 28 batters compared to 10 walks.
In 18.1 innings in the Cascades Nationals, she only surrendered five earned runs and six walks while striking out 18.
“My pitching is something I want to improve on because I’m not really a speed pitcher. I focus more on movement,” Dura said. “My drop ball is what works best for me, and I feel like it separates me from other pitchers.”
On a team stacked with energy, Dura stands out, never shying away from letting out a celebratory yell after scoring a run or landing a big strikeout in the circle.
“I always try to bring the energy and be positive because we always build up on each other. I try to keep a positive mindset so that other people can step up too,” she said.
That mindset pushed the rising junior through a tough Capital season that saw the Cougars finish 3-15. But the squad saw immense improvement in the back half of the campaign and will return a handful of starters in 2027, although Dura will have to pitch to a new catcher following the graduation of All-Area honoree Lola McKeone.
“When the game is not going your way, just believe in yourself, keep pushing and try not to stay negative,” Dura said of her takeaways from the spring season. “Keep a positive mindset no matter how the game is going. Control the controllables.”
Like Everson, Larson is another player who is proving her potential through club ball this summer. The incoming Tumwater junior hasn’t seen varsity action yet but could crack the lineup on a young T-Birds team in 2027.
In the Cascades Nationals tournament, excluding Wednesday’s exhibition, Larson hit 11 for 17 with 11 RBIs, three doubles and a triple. She batted .432 in the club season.
