After winning the District 9 softball championship earlier this month, the Redmond 11-year-old all-stars finished third in the Little League softball state tournament.

The girls arrived at Kirkland’s Everest Field ready to hit, and they delivered a show on July 14 as they faced the North Lake Little League District 8 all-stars. Manager Jeff Cummings won the pre-game coin toss and selected the visitor side of the diamond.  Cummings’ unconventional move put Redmond in the driver’s seat from the top of the first inning.

The Redmond bats stacked up a dizzying 15 runs before North Lake ever swung a bat. With the bases loaded early, Jaclyn Hargin delivered a grand slam home run. The roster continued to litter the outfield with doubles, triples and another home run by Kiki Woodbury. Their power hitting continued into the second, third and fourth innings while Jennifer Cummings’ pitching kept the North Lake bats quiet. With her fastball thriving, she struck out five batters over four innings, when umpires ended the game due to Little League’s mercy rule. Redmond came out swinging and never looked back, ending the game with a dominating score of 20-2.

Bracket play continued, and Redmond matched up against the 2012 state champions from Gig Harbor on Tuesday night. Redmond’s offense never gained traction against Gig Harbor’s defense and the District 2 team posted its third straight shutout victory, 10-0, of the tournament.

After the loss, the double-elimination bracket positioned Redmond in Wednesday’s semifinal game against District 1’s Mill Creek. Mill Creek came away with an 8-3 victory, but not without a strong effort by Redmond. Woodbury hit for a triple, Hargin and Jamie Pippin each had base hits and Audrey Walker was 2-for-4 with two singles. Hargin took the pitching circle for six innings of play, striking out six batters and generating a double play to end the sixth.

Redmond totaled 70-26 in overall runs scored and runs allowed in the district and state tournaments. In the end, the girls from Redmond have plenty of memories to carry into their future softball careers. Catcher Allison Wells says, “I’m so proud of our team’s efforts on the field, and we had a great time off the field, too. Being part of an all-star team is so exciting — we all improved our game and we had a ton of fun together!”