2A Softball: Bearcats Work Quick for Fourth-Straight District 4 Championship

The trick to streamlining any process is practice and repetition.

That could explain why the championship game of the District 4 2A Softball Tournament — won, for the fourth year in a row, by W.F. West on Friday night — lasted just 66 minutes.

The Bearcats got an impressive performance from senior Ali Graham in the pitching circle and rapped out 16 hits to beat Woodland, 10-0, in five short innings at Fort Borst Park.

“It’s always exciting,” Graham said. “I love coming to districts. The team chemistry, every year — we’ve gotten closer and closer, and we just make it fun.”

The fun started in the bottom of the first inning, when leadoff hitter Jessica McKay — swinging a brand-new Louisville Slugger Xeno bat, a gift from her mother — launched the fifth pitch from Woodland starter Haylee Michaud over the fence in center field.

“I think we felt great,” McKay said. “We’ve come into it before, knowing how it feels. I don’t know if they’ve played in one, and we’ve played in plenty. We’re just excited and ready to go.”

Roni Braun drove in another run with a ground rule double in the first, and the Bearcats managed at least a run in every inning. McKay and freshman Olivia Dean — filling the top two spots in the lineup — each went 3 for 3, and Graham, Braun, Lexi Strasser and Kassidy Grandorff all went 2 for 3.

“We’re pretty comfortable, but we come out and we’re very aggressive — just right off the bat, and we don’t like to let up,” Graham said. “That’s something that’s good about our team this year. We don’t like to let up, even if we’re ahead.”

The Bearcats, obviously, never trailed on Friday. Kassidy Grandorff smashed a pitch off the fence in left field for a double to lead off the second inning, and scored when McKay half-checked her swing on a changeup, then knocked a single to left.

Strasser and Grandorff hit RBI singles in the third, and Dean — typically a slap-hitter — took a full swing to knock a 2-run single over the head of a defense playing her tight.

Braun hit an RBI double in the fourth, followed by an RBI single from Strasser, that gave W.F. West a 9-0 lead after four.

Freshman Ashlee Vadala then hit a walk-off RBI single with no one out in the bottom of the fifth to kick the 10-run into effect and bring the game to a close.

Graham faced nine batters over the first three innings, struck out eight and gave up three singles without a walk or an error behind her.

“That’s consistent with what Ali’s been doing, as of late,” Bearcat coach Mike Keen said. “Her pitches work, and she and our catcher, Caitlin (Reynolds), they’re just in sync.”

Graham, a two-time Evergreen 2A Conference pitching MVP, was making her second start in the circle in a district title game.

“I was really happy with how my spin was working, and my velocity,” Graham said. “Just everything in general. It was a great day.”

The win means W.F. West (19-3) will head to the State 2A Softball Tournament, starting Friday in Selah, as a No. 1 seed. The Bearcats will make their 12th straight appearance at state, and 15th trip in the past 16 years.