Courtesy article by Gerardo Bolong

With a return journey to the state 1A softball tournament berth hanging in the balance, Seattle Christian came out solidly swinging on Sat., May 23, on field No. 8 at the Sprinker Recreation Center in a 12-2 six-inning victory against No. 1 Olympic 1A Chimacum to secure the West Central District III championship and its third consecutive trip to the state tournament at the Columbia Playfields in Richland. The Warriors (16-4) will open state action on Fri., May 29, in a 10 a.m. encounter with bi-district I/II South Whidbey of the Cascade Conference. Chimacum earned the second and last WCD spot to state by defeating Bellevue Christian 14-8 later in the day.

"It's satisfying to go back," said Warrior head coach Rick Ronish. "This is three times in a row. It's always tougher when the expectations to go back are higher. the girls battled and didn't make a lot of mistakes. They also took advantage of the other team's mistakes."

Scoring in bunches early and late, the Warriors scored a trio of first inning runs and never trailed.

Seattle Christian(16-4)bombed away with its potent offense for the initial runs.. After Kelli Ronish dashed to first base on strike out with a passed ball,junior Lisa Kumasaka's one-out triple rocketed Ronish home. Third baseman Carlee Ronish promptly punched Kumasaka home with a single for a 2-0 SC lead. Ronish streaked to second base on a wild pitch and advanced to third base on Alyssa Baucom's ground out. One out later, Taelor Willhoite and Makayla Kogle drew consecutive walks to load the bases. Madisen Fors then delivered a run-scoring ground out.

In the second inning, Abby Hay made a ground delivery of two runs on her single and Seattle Christian extended its differential to 5-0.

From the mound, Kumasaka was engineering another mound masterpiece, setting down the first ten Cowboy batters on her usual assortment of pitches with the featured change up forcing hitters to swing way too early for the possibility of connecting.

Bradyn Nelson stopped the string of hitless batters for Chimacum on a fourth inning one-baser.

Chimacum threatened to score in the top of the fifth inning when Mechelle Nisbet walked with one out and stole second before an outfield fly out and infield pop out still had her stranded. Taylor Carthum ended the shut out moments later on RBI single.

The Cowboys battled for another run in the top of the sixth inning to close the gap further.

Leading only 5-2, Seattle Christian mounted an excellently exuberant rally in the home half of the inning in rapid retaliation.

Two consecutive walks and a hit batter loaded the bases with no outs for the Warriors. Fors forced one run home on a walk following a 3-2 count. Makenzie May's ground out drove home another run. Kelli Ronish singled for an RBI ahead of Kumasaka's run-scoring base on balls.

The score kept mounting in Seattle Christian's favor until Hay came up as the eleventh SC batter of the inning. Hay hammered a pitch for two runs and a 12-2 score favoring the Warriors which forced the end of the game on the 10-run mercy rule.

With end of the game and the district championship and No. 1 seed to state in hand, May had some quick thoughts.

"It was awesome to get back (to state)," she said.

Carlee Ronish was almost awe-struck.

"It was crazy game," she said. "I'm excited to go back to state and am always excited about the team effort. Everyone contributed and it's a credit to all."

Putting the capper on the achievement was senior Willhoite.

I'm so proud of how we worked through today," she stated. "Everyone had a great effort."

In another magnificent pitching performance, Kumasaka closed out the Western Washington portion of the schedule on a two-hitter with five strike outs, a hit batter and one walk while also batting 3-for-3,including two RBI and three runs scored.

Hay batted 2-for-3 with four RBI and one run scored.