The Washington Warriors claimed gold Saturday at the State fast-pitch softball tournament at Devon Park after they defeated Chandler 9-3.

It is the program’s 10th fast-pitch title and the first for the school since winning it in 2022.

Warrior head coach Tylor Lampkin called it a “wild three days.”

“We had such a fun time,” he said. “The girls played so well.”

Perry

Washington kicked off the tournament with an 8-1 win over Perry on Thursday.

“Perry had some injuries and fell behind the eight ball for their District schedule,” he said. “But we knew their pitcher would be back who they had when they won it two years ago. They had four girls back off that team so we knew they’d be solid.”

Freshman Payton Blackburn got the start in the circle and struck out three batters over five innings without giving up any walks.

Ellie Musgrove came on in relief for the final two innings.

“We felt like we had a big enough lead to give her some rest,” Lampkin said. “We felt like we had two really good arms behind her and we knew if we got on them early we could hold on.”

Washington scored a run in the second inning, but really blew the game open in the third when they put up a four spot.

Washington gave up a run in the top of the fifth before answering with three runs of their own in the bottom half of the same inning.

Ava Salcedo had herself a tournament and she got it kicked off the right way against Perry, going 2-4 with two RBIs.

“Ava is Ava and you know she’s going to hit around .500 for the tournament,” Lampkin said.

Julie Hoehner went 1-4 but her homer in the bottom of the third provided a huge spark for the team.

Kinzlee Pogue went 2-3 and she scored a run.

Raelee Adkins was 2-2 and scored twice and Isabella Castillo had a big tournament, going 2-2 with two ribbies against Perry.

Lindsay

The Warriors got on the board early with two runs scored in the first inning. They kept the pressure on the Leopards by scoring at least one run in each of the next three innings before capping the last inning with a five-run effort.

Blackburn kept the Lindsay offense off balance from the circle and finished the day with eight strikeouts.

Musgrove finished out the final inning, giving Blackburn a breather.

“We felt like we could use our other pitchers to help keep Payton fresh,” Lampkin said. “We thought having everyone fresh would give us our best opportunity.”

Presley Lucas came up big and went 3-4 with a double and 3 RBIs.

Castillo 2-4 with three RBIs and Salcedo was 3-4 with a double and scored twice.

Emersyn Massey was a terror on the bases all weekend and went 2-3 with two RBIs and scored three times against Lindsay.

“Eme being on base all the time was huge,” Lampkin said. “She was constantly scoring and moving bases. Maybe the biggest key for us for the weekend was when we got on base we were super aggressive. We pressed the issue and almost dared them to try to throw us out.”

Chandler

The Warriors’ 9-3 win against Chandler began with each team exchanging a run in the first inning.

But Washington scored two runs in each of the next three innings to firmly put stress  on Chandler.

Washington scored a run in the fifth and their final run in the sixth.

Chandler was only able to get a run in each of the final two innings.

Hoehner was big-time in the lineup again, going 2-3 with a double and a pair of RBIs.

Salcedo was 1-3 with an RBI and scored a couple of runs.

Daphne Palumbo was 2-3 with an RBI and scored twice.

“Isabella in the seven hole and Daphne in the nine went off in the tournament,” Lampkin said. “When the seven and nine holes are doing those things, then at the top of the lineup they do what they do, good luck trying to beat us.”

Defensively, Blackburn had the circle all to herself.

She struck out six batters in the seven inning game.

“Payton had a great weekend,” Lampkin said. “And I found out later that she’s the first freshman ever to win the championship as the starter at Washington.”

The Warriors finished the season 37-4.

“This group was a lot of fun to coach,” Lampkin said. “Sometimes they were a little nonchalant but when the game kicked off, they played with a little bit of an edge.

“I can’t tell the coaches and players enough how proud and thankful I am for them and I love them.”