The character of the Mercer Island Islanders girls softball team was evident following a loss by a sizable amount of runs against the Bellevue Wolverines.

Bellevue earned its 10th win in a row courtesy of a convincing 35-0 victory against Mercer Island on April 3. The Islanders dropped to 0-8 with the loss while Bellevue improved its overall record to 10-2. Despite losing by 35 runs, the Islanders remained positive and upbeat during and after the game.

“They’ve figured out that improvement is really what matters. They have moved from never really playing much softball to all of a sudden all-out sprinting and diving for balls,” Mercer Island head coach Amanda Mattocks said. “I’m really proud of them. They have fun and they’re just all-out a hard-working group of girls.”

Bellevue sent 17 hitters to the plate in the top of the first inning and another 12 players to the plate in the top of the second en route to a 21-0 lead after just two innings of play.

“The girls have just been hitting the daylights out of the ball,” Bellevue head coach Marty Martin said.

While Bellevue dominated in every facet of the game, Martin said his team was cognizant of the feelings of the Islanders players throughout the game due to the lopsided score.

“It is really tough to rein them in. We feel bad but we were trying to stay with what we are doing,” Martin said of his team’s mindset. “We were not trying to rub it in. The coaches and the players all understand that.”