Fresh off their second straight Washington state championship, the Yakima Diamond Cats are ready to take a swing at a bigger target.

So, the Diamond Cats, winners of seven straight, are headed to one of the several national tournaments … in the south.

“We’ve played the nationals up here in Oregon, and won two of them,” Yakima coach Casey Johnson said. “We wanted to push ourselves, and get out of our comfort zone.”

The Diamond Cats will definitely be out of their usual time zone, playing in the USSSA’s Southeast National Championship at the Drakes Creek Park Athletic Complex in the Nashville suburb of Hendersonville, two hours ahead of Central Washington.

The nine-team field features teams from Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Texas and Wisconsin.

Yakima’s four-team pool includes Explosion Fastpitch from Danville, Ind.; Nebraska Venom from Elkhorn, Neb., and Salado, Texas entry Athletics Mercado.

While the teams will remain a bit of a mystery until the Diamond Cats (15-4) open pool play Tuesday morning against Athletics Mercado, Johnson knows what Yakima has on the mound – a three-headed pitching machine.

“I highly recommend to anybody coaching a team to get three stud pitchers,” he said jokingly. “It’s made me a good coach.”

Ainsley Johnson, the coach’s daughter, is the oldest of the three pitchers, having graduated from West Valley last month after winning the CBBN Most Valuable Player of the Year and pitching the Rams to their first victory in the Class 4A tournament.

She leads Yakima with a 1.91 earned-run average while striking out 37 and walking eight in 22 innings.

East Valley juniors-to-be Elise Heater and Brooklynn Root make up the rest of the pitching staff. The all-CWAC second-teamers, who pitched alongside Red Devils’ conference MVP duo Presley Weatherley and Tia Ramynke, have helped the Diamond Cats limit nine of their 11 opponents to two or fewer runs.

Heater leads the Diamond Cats with 42 innings pitched and 53 strikeouts, with a 2.17 ERA.

Root has a 2.92 ERA with 26 Ks in 36 innings.

Offensively, Yakima has been stout, too, scoring seven or more runs in nine of their 15 victories, and batting .336 for the season.

West Valley graduate Madi Statler leads the attack with a .467 batting average with 13 RBI.

Fellow Rams standout Calleigh Sinnes, who will be a senior this fall, also has been key for the Diamond Cats, slugging .606, while Root tops the team with eight doubles and two home runs.

Yakima will meet the Nebraska Venom in pool play Tuesday, before meeting Explosion Fastpitch on Wednesday. The double-elimination tournament runs Thursday through Saturday.

The Diamond Cats arrived Saturday in Tennessee, and have been watching the weather. Temperatures are expected to hover around 90 degrees all week, with thunderstorms in the forecast from Thursday through the weekend.

If there are delays, the teams could play Sunday.