Women's fastpitch emerged from the Tacoma City League to contend beyond local competitions, with Lincoln Electric and the Sumner Athletic Club (SAC) fielding solid teams in 1945. Bob Huegel coached the Lincoln squad, including players Marion Ricono, Peggy Moran Ruehle, and Betty Rowan, to the Washington State Championship that year and then finished the season trying to unseat Linn-Pomeroy of Portland for the right to advance to the national tournament. But Portland's ace pitcher, Betty Evans, was too much for the Tacomans. They got to first base only twice in two games. Lincoln Electric did come back, however, to win a second consecutive state crown in 1946. The SAC, organized and coached by Jerry Kreuger, was a force to reckon with for the next four years.

A familiar name on the fastpitch scene then was Margaret Heinrick, daughter of legendary Stadium High and College of Puget Sound (now UPS) football and basketball coach John Heinrick. As a 14-year-old, she was asked to catch for the Fort Lewis women's team in the 1946 national championships. She also played several exhibition games against the four-time world-championship Phoenix Queens, billed as the "Ziegfield Girls of Softball."

The emergence in 1948 of the Tacoma Fuelerettes (also known as Pacific Mutual Fuels) and SAC put women's fastpitch in the limelight. Both teams competed in the state tournament in 1948, but a strong SAC contingent won the 1949 crown, with the Fuelerettes placing third. The SAC entry, coached by Oliver Malley and Bob Chaplin, included the All-Star battery of Ann Kauzlarich and Dora LaFaive Dietz., along with Freida Bostwick, Gloria Malley, Betty Rowan Hart, Kate McHugh, Doris Wanberg, Shirley Soggie, and Ann Pyfer, among others.

The Tacoma Fuelerettes entry featured Dee Sagmiller, Joyce Jones, Virginia Glassy, Pat Strachan, Patty Parsons, Louise Baskett, Margaret Heinrick, Dorothy Miskar, Peggy Parsons, Marjorie Johnson, and Ruthe Canonica. They were coached for two years by Frank Cey, father of Los Angeles Dodger All-Star third baseman Ron Cey, before Dick Penhale and Bill Stavig assumed the coaching duties.

In the 1950s, many women's teams came and went as fastpitch grew. The Brotman Clothiers, Woodmen of the World, Darigold Dairymaids, Shamrocks, Rustlers, Washington Hardware, PVT Club, and the Orphans (so noted because they could not find a sponsor) were all regular league teams and tournament participants. But it was the Hollywood Boat and Motor (HB&M) team, coached by Margaret Zepeda and Carl Benson and featuring Zepeda on third base and pitcher Louise Mazzuca, that raised the sport to another level.

An avid softball player, Zepeda came to Tacoma from San Antonio, Texas, met Harry Esborg, owner of HB&M, and sold him on the idea of sponsoring a women's softball team. She put together a competitive group of players from local recreation leagues, featuring Mazzuca, a 14-year-old pitching phenomenon with a big windmill windup. Among the many players to don the HB&M uniform were Joyce Jones Wolf, Sandy Molzan, Esther Deuel, Jan Chase, Carol Schnuriger Boyer, Alayne Butterfield, Margaret Heinrick and Shirley "Mac" Olsen.

HB&M played in the Evergreen Travel League against teams from throughout Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Canada and hosted clubs from Utah, California, and Arizona. Big crowds greeted some of the visiting teams, including an exhibition game featuring the great Charlotte Armstrong of the Phoenix Queens, who lived up to her name when she pitched against HB&M. Famous for pitching from the mound, second base, or center field- it didn't matter- she was unhittable from any of those three positions.

Upon returning to Texas, Zepeda went on to earn the distinction of having the most wins as a coach in the history of Texas women's fastpitch and was elected into the Texas Softball Hall of Fame. Mazzuca's career quickly blossomed when she moved to Portland to play for the nationally ranked Erv Lind Florists. A three-time first-team All-American in 1959, 1960 and 1961 while with the Florists, Mazzuca still holds the record for most no-hitters thrown in a national championship tournament, with three in 1961. She also shared Most Valuable Player honors two straight years at nationals. Possessor of 19 career no-hit games, Mazzuca was also honored to pitch an exhibition game against the Portland Beavers 3A baseball team. She was inducted into the Pacific Northwest and Tacoma-Pierce County Softball Halls of Fame. Mazzuca will be inducted into the Amateur Softball Association's National Hall of Fame in November of 2007, the highest honor accorded by that organization and the first Washingtonian to receive this honor.


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We are actively looking for artifacts that will allow us to exhibit and interpret our sports heritage. If you have Tacoma- Pierce County sports memorabilia you would like to donate, please contact Marc Blau, President of the Shanaman Sports Museum, at (253) 848-1360 or at blaumarc@qwest.net.