SELAH – The Diamond Cats were at their Sunday best, claiming the Hot August Nights championship at Carlon Park.

Yakima rallied for a 7-6 victory over Richland’s Washington Angels to cap bracket play at the Greater Yakima Girls Softball Association tournament which was played overnight at the Selah facility to finish the season 25-9.

All three of the Diamond Cats’ victories came after 1 a.m. Sunday, with the championship rings being handed out about an hour and a half after sunrise.

Sunday’s title is third tourney title in the last four entries for the club, which is made up mostly of West Valley and East Valley players, with a Naches Valley addition and a couple of westside standouts, too.

Yakima won its second straight state championship to cap June, and added the Summer Meltdown in Chehalis last weekend.

As a local in the 18-team tournament this weekend, the Diamond Cats were determined to add another title.

“There was no other ending we would have accepted to this run,” said Casey Johnson, who has been coaching the program since its formation in the late 2010s.

Yakima needed a rally in the final game for the championship, as it trailed 5-0 after two innings.

The Diamond Cats got three runs back in the third, with Naches Valley’s Lilli Van Wagoner RBI double scoring East Valley’s Elise Heater, who had doubled earlier in the inning.

Heater’s Red Devils teammate Brooklynn Root drew a bases loaded walk to push across another run, and West Valley’s Madi Statler capped the rally with a sacrifice fly to center field to score Heater, who was running for Van Wagoner, a catcher.

After going 1-2-3 in the fourth, Yakima’s bats again warmed up.

With two outs, the Diamond Cats loaded the bases.

Root blooped a single that the Angels’ right fielder couldn't hold on to, scoring two to tie the score, before Statler’s double pushed Yakima into the lead.

“There is no hitter on our team I want up with the game on the line more than Madi,” Johnson said. “She’s been doing that since she was 8 years old and I knew she’d do it one more time for us.”

West Valley graduate Ainsley Johnson pitched the final 3 2/3 innings in relief of Heater, allowing just one hit and one run while striking out six.

In its final at-bat, Washington scored one run after Johnson struck out the first two batters, and had the tying run on second base, but the Rams ace got Anna Ortega, the SCAC MVP from College Place, to pop up to end the game.

“Ainsley told me before the game she had a few innings left in the tank and, boy, did we need every one of them,” said Coach Johnson, Ainsley’s father. “She came in and held them in check and allowed us a chance to stay in it and get our bats going.”

The Diamond Cats began Sunday action by walloping Oregon’s Frost Elite, 17-0, with Root tossing a three-inning no-hitter. She struck out seven batters.

East Valley’s Sophiya Castaneda had two hits, including a two-run triple, and fellow Red Devil Leila Cook had two hits, two RBI and two runs.

Everett’s Kodie Rasmussen doubled and drove in three runs, Heaters had a hit and three RBI, Van Wagoner doubled and knocked in two, WV’s Danika Gaethle doubled in a run, and Statler had two hits, including an RBI double.

Yakima beat Spokane Stealth in the semifinals, 10-5.

Cook had a two-run double, Gaethle added an RBI double and singled in another run, WV’s Calleigh Sinnes had two hits – one of them a triple – and Heater scored twice and had two hits, including a double.

Johnson pitche a five-inning complete game, striking out six.

“This team simply never quits, doesn’t matter how dire the situation is, they just refuse to give up,” Coach Johnson said. “I love that the most about our team – pure grit.”