Cashmere High's Jenna Reeder, center right, celebrates at home plate with teammates Kate Jacobson, far left, Allie McKenna, center left, and Grace Norman, far right, after hitting an inside the park home run against Quincy in the 1A district title game Saturday in Cashmere. Cashmere defeated Quincy 14-3 to win the district title to advance to the 1A State Tournament. Cashmere will face Naches Valley at 3 p.m. on Thursday in Richland.
Cashmere High's Jenna Reeder, center right, celebrates at home plate with teammates Kate Jacobson, far left, Allie McKenna, center left, and Grace Norman, far right, after hitting an inside the park home run against Quincy in the 1A district title game Saturday in Cashmere. Cashmere defeated Quincy 14-3 to win the district title to advance to the 1A State Tournament. Cashmere will face Naches Valley at 3 p.m. on Thursday in Richland.
CASHMERE — After winning the Caribou Trail League title, and thereby gaining the advantage of hosting the 1A District 6 championship, the Cashmere High School softball team was on the precipice of winning a consecutive district championship.
Quincy (16-6), Cascade (3-18) and Omak (10-11) made the four-team tournament and for any of them to win the title and advance to the state tournament, they had to win two consecutive games. There could only be one — a single loss would abruptly end their season.
Cashmere (18-4) first faced the Cascade Kodiaks. Cashmere already beat Cascade three times during the regular season and Saturday yielded a similar result, however, it was the closest margin between these two teams all season, 16-1.
Jenna Reeder, the CTL Player of the Year, led Cashmere after a perfect 4-for-4 performance that garnered a homer, a double and three RBIs. Allie McKenna and Dina Schoengarth each added another two RBIs. Grace Norman, Cameron Phillips and Lily Wilson scored two runs apiece.
Reeder also pitched three innings with one run and a walk with four strikeouts. Macie Zimmerman pitched 1 2/3 innings, gave up nothing and finished with two strikeouts. They combined to complete a no-hitter.
Cascade’s season ended but a trip to the district tournament isn’t a poor way to go. They’ll graduate six seniors: Emma Warman, Giselle Navarro, Emma Sunitsch, Vanessa West, Lindsee Rodriguez and Coco Zehm.
The next game pitted Quincy versus Omak. Early in the season the Pioneers beat Quincy by a healthy margin, but three weeks previously, the Jackrabbits returned the favor two-fold, sweeping the Pioneers in a doubleheader.
It was a hard-fought battle that Quincy eventually won by a single run, 7-6, ending Omak’s season.
Omak will graduate four seniors: Aspen Hoover, Taya Graham, Kortney Keaton and Kyra Paul.
This meant the championship game would be between Cashmere and Quincy.
Cashmere’s bats stayed hot — amassing 17 hits through the afternoon — propelling them to a 16-6 win over the Jackrabbits, ending their season and claiming their second consecutive district championship.
Reeder collected another home run on her way to six RBIs. She went 3-for-4. She also threw five innings and gave up three runs, nine hits, and one walk with five strikeouts.
McKenna went 4-for-4 with three scored runs Kate Jacobson, Wilson, Schoengarth and Norman all finished with two hits apiece.
Quincy will only graduate one senior, Ashley Avalos.Â
Cashmere will enter the opening round of the state tournament the No. 8 seed. They’ll play No. 9 Naches Valley at Columbia Playfield (Richland) on Thursday at 3 p.m.
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