Following a rain delay last Saturday, Redmond and Battle Ground resumed their 4A winner-to-state softball game on Tuesday. The Mustangs held onto their 5-0 lead en route to a victory and qualified for state for the third straight season.

Redmond will play Rogers (Puyallup) at noon on Friday in the opening round at the Merkel Sports Complex in Spokane.

With Redmond leading 5-0 in the bottom of the fifth inning on Saturday, umpires called a rain delay at Battle Ground.

When the game resumed, Battle Ground had the bases loaded with no outs and an 0-1 count.

Redmond’s Kiki Milloy struck out the first two batters and then center fielder Kaija Gibson made a diving catch to end the threat.

In the Battle Ground sixth, Lindsay Tsujikawa snagged a line drive and completed a double play with Haley Hanson to end the inning. Redmond kept Battle Ground’s bats silent in the seventh to earn the win.

On Saturday, Redmond led 1-0 heading into the top of the fifth inning when Gibson hammered a grand slam homer. Tsujikawa and Keona Tibbs had singles and Hanson got on board with a bunt to set up the big blast.

“This is a really awesome feeling to go back to state three years in a row. The girls worked hard this year and continued to believe in themselves when everyone wrote them off,” said coach Parris Mamon.