The Washington 14U All-Stars fought through rain delays, late night games, intense heat and a bracket full of tough teams and never broke stride as they wrapped up the ENC Babe Ruth state softball tournament by capturing the fourth state title in the history of Washington during the Babe Ruth era with a perfect 6-0 record.
“It feels great,” said Washington coach Brad Horton. “The pitching and defense has been outstanding. I cannot say enough about that. In this tournament we’ve only let up eight runs in six games. That was just outstanding.”
The Washington lineup didn’t do so bad either as it racked up 40-plus runs during the week and used a five-run first inning to help down a tough Down East team.
Meghan Horton went 2-3 with three RBIs, while Jordan Peirce went 1-3 with three RBIs and Chaleigh Baynor finished 1-3 with two RBIs to lead the way.
“The bats really came alive toward the end of the tournament,” Horton said. “We jumped out early in the championship game and we had a lot of hits from a lot of players. … It was a true team effort.”
Rachel Lang got the ball rolling in the first with an RBI single, which was followed by two-run base hits by Horton and Baynor.
Down East put a run on the board in the second, but Washington responded in the third with another Horton RBI that made the score 6-1.
Down East threatened in the fourth, rallying for three runs to trim the deficit to 6-4, but once again Washington answered as Pearce clubbed a two-run double in the bottom of the inning and then added a sac fly in the sixth to take a 9-4 lead.
Hailey Harris threw three innings to get the win, while Lang pitched the final four frames to preserve the lead and lockdown a state title.
With the win the All-Stars, who also won the District 6 title, were extended an invitation to the Babe Ruth regional tournament in Virginia and Horton said none of that would be possible without a deep roster and great chemistry.
“These girls have been working for this for a long time. We’ve been a travel ball team for the past four or five years,” Horton said. “One of our goals was that when they got to this age we wanted to win state titles and some high school championships and that is something they are working hard towards.”

Down East    010    300    0    —    4
Washington    501    200    X    —    9
WP: Hailey Harris; LP: Susanne Taylor
Hitting: W — Hailey Harris 2-3 (2B), Jordan Peirce 1-3 (2B, 3RBI), Rachel Lang 2-3 (RBI), Meghan Horton 2-3 (3 RBI), Chaleigh Baynor 1-3 (2 RBI).