OLYMPIA — Dakota Lyons had one thought as she watched the first strike of her first at-bat scurry by her.
“Gosh, I wish I would’ve swung at that.”
Lyons, a soon-to-be Napavine High School sophomore suiting up for Centralia-based club Blue Thunder 14A this summer, doesn’t often bite on the first pitch. But in the first game of the 14-and-under Cascades National Championship bracket round Friday at Olympia’s Yauger Park, that first pitch had damage written all over it if Lyons would’ve pulled the trigger.
Surely she wouldn’t get a second chance to swing at that same pitch again, right?
Sure as the day follows the night, Lyons got her wish.
The very next pitch mirrored the first, a floater that seemed to hang over the middle for an eternity before Lyons bashed it over the center field fence. Her long bomb gave her team a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning against Blast Salas-Snyder in what was eventually a 10-1 victory for Blue Thunder.
“It was the exact same pitch. It was my redemption,” Lyons said. “It was just perfect for me.”
The lefty hitter has grown into a powerful slugger since joining the Napavine Tigers as an eighth grader in the spring of 2025. The perfect pitch down the middle Lyons saw Friday was also a replica of the pitch she saw on May 9, 2025, at Tenino when she cranked her first career home run to right field.
When she hit that first homer as an eighth grader over a year ago, she didn’t think the ball cleared the fence at first and wasn’t convinced it was a home run until she saw the umpire give the signal while she was running the bases.
She’s pretty used to seeing that signal these days.
Since then, Lyons has piled up the homers. The 2026 All-Area Team selection powered two over the fence as a freshman for Napavine this past spring, and she’s already clubbed four since May 30 with Blue Thunder.
“I really like to focus on my mindset. I don’t have expectations. I just do the best I can,” Lyons said of her approach at the plate. “I also have a great hitting coach, so he’s helped me a lot.”
Lyons has been a difficult out against 14U competition all summer. She’s batting .506, and along with those four homers, she’s got 10 RBIs, 10 doubles and five triples. And after a couple of tough outings in the circle earlier in the summer for the southpaw ace, Lyons has only allowed seven earned runs in her last 18.2 innings of work.
Those numbers are right on par with what she accomplished as a freshman for Napavine, logging a .429 batting average with 11 doubles and five triples while driving in 22 runs. In the circle, she compiled 114.2 innings and started 17 of 22 games in which she pitched, finishing with a 14-3 record and 91 strikeouts compared to 25 walks. Lyons was a rock for the Tigers in the circle with a steady 3.297 ERA and a 1.605 WHIP behind a six-pitch toolkit.
“I was so relieved that everyone trusted me in the circle and in the outfield. It took a lot of pressure off of me,” Lyons said of her freshman year at Napavine. “I don’t feel pressured to try to be good because they always have my back.”
She looks a bit different rocking the black and blue uniform for Blue Thunder in the summer compared to the black and orange of Napavine in the spring, and some of her Central 2B League foes in the spring are her club teammates in the summer. Toledo’s Xtyn Norberg and Adna’s Teagan Baggenstos also compete for the Blue Thunder, as well as Centralia’s Antonia Saucedo to round out the area athletes on the roster.
When the C2BL trio are at their best at the top of the Blue Thunder lineup, the team is difficult to beat.
“The girls are amazing. I love them to death. They make it really be fun to be around,” Lyons, who joined Blue Thunder as a seventh grader, said. “We’re always joking around with each other. Obviously, Adna and Toledo are very good teams. It’s nice to have [Norberg and Baggenstos]. I don’t count us as rivals. It’s weird to be playing against them in the spring, but then we have practice together.”
Blue Thunder has won seven games in a row, scoring at least six runs in each of those wins and at least 10 in five of six. The squad advanced to the next round of the Cascades tournament with the 10-1 win over Blast Salas-Snyder Friday and is three wins away from a championship.
If there’s an MVP award for 14U summer ball, Lyons would be a hard player to pick against, but she gives credit to her teammates first.
“I’ve known all of these girls for a few years. I know they have that talent, and they’ve all worked really hard,” she said. “When we’re combined, it’s amazing. My team’s energy just keeps us up. They have the best cheers ever that hype me up.”
The 2027 spring season feels like eons away, but Lyons will certainly be in the running for the face of the new-look Tigers with the graduation of several star players. If this past spring is any indication of what she’s capable of, Lyons is ready for that pressure.
“Those seniors were our connection, and it’s going to suck losing them and we’ll have to build off of it,” she said. “But we can rebuild it. It might take maybe a year or so, but I know we can.”
Mossyrock's Zoella Zavodsky, Tenino's Kylie Gonia and Rainier's Peyton Tsagris are competing with Tumwater-based Sabotage Northwest 14U, which went 1-1 Friday.
