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DEVIN SHEA/Stat Hound contributor
CBBN, CWAC try to shake recent state struggles, earn hardware
Eastmont, West Valley head to Richland, East Valley, Selah at Carlon; Royal wins thriller
By JERREL SWENNING/Stat Sound
May 22, 2026
It’s been a rough go of late for the CWAC and CBBN in the state fastpitch tournaments.
The Class 2A championship game has included a CWAC team 14 of 25, games with Othello winning four titles and Selah another. Yet, the conference hasn’t captured a top-four trophy in the last two tourneys.
And the Class 4A CBBN has nary a medal this millennium.
Starting Friday, the two berths from each conference aim to defy the seedings that have forecast another trophyless spring.
In the 4A tournament at Richland’s Columbia Playfields, CBBN district champion Eastmont, seeded 13th, will meet No, 4 Richland, the Mid-Columbia Conference runner-up led by star left-hander Ali Evans.
“It’s kind of how it is,” Eastmont coach Michael Koch said of the seedings.
The Wildcats finished in a three-way tie at top the CBBN with West Valley and Moses Lake, edging the Rams 3-2 in the district championship.
Eastmont is a different team, Koch said, when senior pitcher Jace Burkhart, an all-CBBN second-teamer, is in the circle.
“I think some of that is the energy from Jace,” Koch said. “You wouldn’t know the score when you look at her, and that’s what you need.”
Burkhart is backed by a defense led by all-conference outfielder Maddie Wood.
West Valley returns to the tournament for the first times since 2022, and is seeded 14th.
After the tight loss in the district final, conference Coach of the Year Brad Cramer’s crew responded with an 11-1 handling of Moses Lake and conference Offensive Player of the Year Haydem Morris, who keyed the Mavericks run to the slowpitch championship in October.
Rams senior Ainsley Johnson is the conference’s top pitcher and was voted the CBBN MVP. She is 11-3 this season with 147 strikeouts in the 75 2/3 innings.
She’ll be key in Friday’s 9 a.m. opener against No. 3 Issaquah, as will an offense that has five batters hitting better than .350.
East Valley tolls into the 2A tournament having won the seven straight games by a combined score of 79-11.
The CWAC district champion Red Devils are seeded sixth, and open at 9 a.m. Friday against No. 11 Archbishop Murphy at Selah’s Carlon Park.
Conference MVP Presley Weatherley and Tia Ramynke, the 2025 winner of the award, lead the East Valley offensive attack and in the circle.
“Part of the process is to test the girls early and get them ready for what comes in May,” said Red Devils coach Jason Ramynke, the CWAC Coach of the Year. “All those things are coming together. We’re playing well in every dimension.”
Selah, which tied East Valley for the regular-season championship, is seeded 10th, and drew seventh-seeded Ridgefield at 9 Friday morning.
The 1-2 punch of Michigan-bound Avery Brewer and sophomore Aspin Grubenhoff combined for 17 home runs this season, and will try to power the Vikings to their first trophy since a fourth-place finish in 2018.
Royal opened the 1A tournament at the Columbia Playfields in thrilling fashion Thursday. The eighth-seeded Knights outlasted No. 9 Klahowya 10-9, with Livi Wardenaar’s RBI single delivering a walk-off win in the bottom of the eighth inning.
Wardenaar finished with three hits, and SCAC co-MVP Jill Allred tripled, doubled and struck out 10 in the circle. Sarah Bergeson added two RBI.
Top-seeded Montesano awaits the Knights in Friday afternoon’s 1 o’clock quarterfinal.
Naches Valley, which sprung a couple upsets at the district tournament, to earn the No. 12 seed, fell to fifth-seeded Elma 9-2 on Thursday, ending the Rangers’ season at 10-14.
SCAC regular season and district champion College Place is seeded fourth, and will meet Elma in a quarterfinal at 1 p.m. Friday.
The Hawks are led by junior pitcher Anna Ortega, the SCAC co-MVP who is 16-0 this season, and sophomore shortstop Carli Ray, who has slugged a school-record 12 home runs this spring.