Cascade Christian finally gets better of Vashon Island, wins district baseball title

The Cascade Christian Cougars and the Vashon Island Pirates have been duking it out all season leading up to their playoff battle for the first seed.

Three times they played and three times Vashon walked away with a one-run win.

Not Thursday.

This time, the Cougars rallied and took down the Pirates, 4-2, to win the 1A West Central District tournament. The win clinches a one seed for Cascade Christian.

Vashon scored its two runs in the first, following an RBI single from Tyler Fox in the Cougars’ half of the inning.

But from there, Vashon would be silenced offensively by Fox. He went the distance, holding the Pirates to those two runs on five hits, and he fanned three.

“He was great today,” said Cascade Christian’s coach, Chris Fox. “He’s the ace of our staff and we rode him all year.”

From there, the Cougars gutted out their runs one by one. The tying run came in the fourth inning on a bases-loaded walk.

Then, the go-ahead run crossed the plate in the fifth after Chad Adams’ sacrifice fly scored Preston Smith.

An insurance run came in the sixth on a wild pitch.

“We knew it would come down to this,” Fox said. “We played super gritty today.”

Cascade Christian owns the first seed in the WIAA 1A state tournament. Fox is thrilled with his team’s accomplishments.

“It’s great. It’s indescribable to be honest,” he said.

The Cougars’ opponent is not yet known, but their game will be on May 21 in Anacortes at Volunteer Park.

Vashon drops to a winner-to-state/loser-out game.

This story was originally published May 12, 2016 at 10:39 PM with the headline "Cascade Christian finally gets better of Vashon Island, wins district baseball title."