Legacy cemented: How the Montesano Bulldogs pulled off an unprecedented undefeated season

Published 1:30 am Friday, May 29, 2026

In the nearly three decades that Montesano head coach Pat Pace has been the head coach of the Bulldogs softball program, he has won more games and state championships than any other coach in state history.

Yet in that time, through all previous 12 state championships over his 29-year head coaching career, no Montesano team had a perfect undefeated season.

That is, until this year.

Pace’s team completed the indomitable task of capping off the program’s 13th state title with a sparkling 27-0 record, becoming the first, and arguably the greatest, Bulldogs team of all time.

So how did it happen?

How did this Bulldogs team, which lost six key seniors off last season’s state-championship squad, run through a brutal schedule and dominate in the postseason to cement an unprecedented legacy?

As it turned out, the magic formula that produced the most impressive season in Bulldogs history was a combination of many key features every coach has on the preseason checklist: Strong starting pitching, error-free defense, consistent hitting, execution up and down the lineup, etc.

But to go perfect takes so much more than that, and according to Pace and his players, much of their success had to do with the most important of all team characteristics: Chemistry, which can be tough to build coaching a team full of teenagers.

“There was no drama on this team,” said Pace, who secured his 603rd win of his legendary career when his Bulldogs beat Seton Catholic 8-0 for the state title on May 23. “I really haven’t had that before either. There’s always something that’s come up, and this team really just stayed focused on one game at a time.”

“If there was anything that even started to lead to that we cut it off and fixed it before it could lead to anything,” said senior first baseman Regan Wintrip, who along with fellow seniors Grace Gooding and Lex Stanfield, secured the third state title of her prep career. “Really, there were only maybe a few instances of that. Overall, we worked really well together and didn’t really have anything to have any drama about.”

“I feel like all of us saw each other as best friends and sisters rather than having competition between each person,” added Montesano junior shortstop Jaelyn Butterfield. “We all were proud of each other for our own accomplishments because as a team, we needed every single one of those girls.”

A large component of the chemistry formula was Gooding, the heart-and-soul team leader that gets the energy going in the dugout with her infectious attitude and is a fierce competitor at the dish and in the circle.

“Where her power comes from is that she is such a great motivator for the team in the dugout,” Pace said of Gooding, one of his two aces in the circle who also placed a vital role in the outfield this season. “That is something I’m hoping somebody steps up and takes over. We need that person in the dugout that gets the team going like she does.”

But chemistry alone can’t navigate the Bulldogs’ notoriously difficult schedule, and in retrospect, the 2026 state champs may have had the toughest non-league opposition of any Monte team to date.

On its way to perfection, 10 of Montesano’s 12 non-league opponents reached their respective state tournaments, including 4A-class Timberline and 3A Kelso.

Monte had two wins over three-time defending 2B state champ Adna, this season’s 2B state runner-up, and beat the reigning 2A champs Aberdeen and perennial 2A state fixture Tumwater.

Entering the 1A State Tournament, Montesano had wins over eight of the tourney’s 12 teams.

The Bulldogs were clearly a well-honed, battle-tested team entering the final weekend of the season.

Monte did as expected at state, ripping through Royal 20-4 to set up a semifinal showdown with East County rival and the team many felt worthy of a second-place state ranking in the Elma Eagles, which Monte defeated 14-0 in the district final a week prior.

While Elma kept the game closer in the fourth go-around of their heavyweight bout, it was Montesano that emerged with a 7-1 win to advance to the state final.

In the championship game, Monte faced another familiar foe in No. 3 Seton Catholic, a team the Bulldogs first faced and dispatched of 3-0 in the district semifinals.

Leading 1-0 in the bottom of the third, the Bulldogs put the game away with a Butterfield blast, a Grand Slam home run in a seven-run frame to go up 8-0.

“Right before I went up to bat, Coach Pace pulled me over and told me, ‘Find your pitch, see it in the middle and just drive it,’” Butterfield said. “I step in the box and I’m like, ‘OK, bases loaded. I need to do something here.’ And I just did what Pace told me to do. … It was exciting to do that, especially in a state-championship game. Being able to help my team out and get us those runs, it felt really good.”

Ace starting pitcher Violet Prince, one of several key sophomores that shined in helping the Bulldogs win state, allowed three hits in a complete-game shutout to get her second state-championship game win of her prep career.

“I remember when I was younger driving past the softball field seeing all the banners (at Dick Tagman Field) and I always pictured myself having a banner out there,” said Prince, who didn’t allow an earned run the entire season. “Now that I get to have two out there, it means so much to me. How hard we all worked for those, it’s a dream come true really.”

The Bulldogs mixture of Prince and Gooding in the circle and a starting nine that didn’t change all season long gave Montesano a consistency throughout the perfect run.

“First time I’ve really just ran with nine kids my entire career. That group of nine was just a great group of kids,” said Pace, whose team didn’t rely on the small-ball approach as much as it had in the past.

By no means did the Bulldogs abandon the uber-aggressive offense that takes advantage of the tiniest of mistakes by opposing defenses, but an emphasis on offensive production led to more pop in this year’s lineup.

Monte batted .441 as a team with an OPS of 1.137, belted 20 home runs, drove in 259 of 308 runs scored while stealing 140 bases this season.

It all started with Stanfield and sophomore second baseman Lainey Robinson at the top of the lineup, Monte’s two slap hitters and the firestarters for an inferno of an offense.

Stanfield, the 1A Evergreen League MVP and state Player of the Year candidate, hit .647 this season (.875 at state tournament), with an OBP of .670, 53 runs scored and 32 stolen bases.

“Lex is our unicorn. She’s going to be tough to replace,” Pace said of Stanfield, who was clocked running a blazing fast 2.5 seconds from first to second base. “We’ve never had a girl with that type of speed. She’s running out hits to the pitcher and second baseman we’ve never seen before. She’s the first batter I never gave any signs too when she stepped into the batter’s box. She took total control and was everything you want in a leadoff hitter.”

Stanfield and Robinson (.455, .515 OBP, 41 R, 25 SB) set the table for the meat of the Monte order, and did it ever feast.

Led by Butterfield (.489, 9 HR, 10 2B, 45 R, 49 RBI) and sophomore center fielder Taylor Galvin (.477, 5 HR, 9 2B, 40 R, 40 RBI) the Bulldogs belted 94 extra-base hits this season.

Followed by the likes of Wintrip (.438, 28 R, 25 RBI), sophomore catcher Addi Williamsen (.333, .653 SLG, 3 HR, 28 RBI), sophomore left fielder Charlee Fairbairn (.377, 22 R, 26 RBI), Gooding (.337, 30 RBI) and Prince (.368, 20 RBI) the Bulldogs offense had no easy outs in the lineup, a characteristic attributed to the hard work in the batting cages.

“The way they hit the ball, they put in a lot of time and we focused a lot more on batting and getting to the cages than I ever have in the past, and this team just bought right into it,” Pace said. “We had two really good slappers and some offensive power. We had some younger kids that were waiting for kids to graduate so they could shine.”

All signs were there that Monte could repeat as state champs for the first time since the 2008-09 seasons, but a perfect record looking at the Bulldogs schedule seemed out of reach, maybe even for the Bulldogs themselves.

“I thought I’d probably never coach a team that went undefeated because I always try to find a tough schedule for them. Everybody I scheduled for this team, they just went out, played hard and beat ‘em.,” said Pace, whose coaching staff didn’t utter the word ‘undefeated until the days leading up to the state tournament. “Undefeated and a state title has never happened for Montesano. This is a new one.”

“Honestly, we didn’t really talk about it at all,” Gooding said. “We kind of just let it be and we just kept playing how we would each time. We took each game as just another game and didn’t worry about our record. I feel like that’s something we carried with us and just kept playing Monte softball. I think that’s what made our team so special.”

“We all knew it in the back of our heads, but I don’t think we ever went into a game scared to lose. We were always ready,” Prince said. “The record didn’t mean anything to us until we realized we’d actually done it for the first time.”

Wintrip said she had a feeling early on that this iteration of the Bulldogs was something different, something special.

“I definitely feel like out of all the groups, this was the group to do it,” she said. “After the (state-title) game, we talked about it and realized how special and how cool it actually was. … After some of the first few games, we felt closer than a lot of the other (seasons). … I think we all clicked and worked really well together. That kind of gave us the feeling we could do something special out here.”

For Pace, the season provided some validation for staying at the helm after he considered retiring from coaching a few short seasons ago.

“Somebody asked me, ‘How did it happen? How did the perfect season come around?’ It’s because I had the perfect kids, had the perfect parents, had the perfect coaches helping out. There are a lot of perfects in there,” he said. “I’m glad I didn’t step away from the sport when I was thinking about it earlier. It’s a great accomplishment to coach a team that goes undefeated. It’s something that doesn’t happen a lot. I can’t really describe it or explain it. I’m at a loss for words on it. I’m happy for the kids and I’m happy I was part of it with them.”

The support of the community was also integral to the Bulldogs’ success.

“We always have a lot of supporters that come to our games. … Future and past players are there to support us and make us better. I feel like when we have a lot of supporters at our games, it makes us excited and want to show them how we play our best game,” Stanfield said.

“I just want to thank everybody from the community that supported us, showing up no matter how far the games were and always cheering us on,” Wintrip said. “It really does give us a sense of support. For us to have that support and to go out there and do what we did for our town, it’s something pretty special.”

A grateful Gooding uttered words heard by many past Bulldogs softball players and likely many more in the future.

“The program has been a really special thing to me and I would do anything for all of those girls. It’s something that has been so consistent in my life and it’s truly the best time of the year for me,” she said. “Leaving the program is definitely sad, but I’m ready for the next chapter and I’m so happy I got to leave a legacy with my best friends.”

After a perfect season, it’s a legacy that will long be remembered.