Emily Stinnett and Cordelia Johnson both doubled and scored to lead off the game for Huntland, sounding the wake-up call for Cascade.

Nobody hit the snooze alarm and fell back asleep. Rather, the Lady Champions bolted into action and countered by sending 17 batters to the plate and scoring 12 runs in the bottom half of the first on their way to a 16-5 win.

Cascade (13-5) needed but six hits to amass their whopping run total with Mary Jett accounting for a third of their knocks with two doubles. Huntland was their own worst enemy as their pitchers walked six batters and plunked six more.

"We hit the ball pretty fair all the way down the lineup," Lady Champion coach Jeremy Austin said. "We were not as productive at times when we should have been. We made a few baserunning mistakes. Sometimes when you get a big lead that's easy to do. You lose focus.

"All in all, I'm pretty happy with our performance on offense and defense."

Cascade pitcher Leigha Carter settled down after the rocky start to shut the visitors down for the next three innings until Huntland plated three runs in the fifth and final frame thanks to three hits and a pair of errors. She finished with seven strikeouts and one walk.

"We've still got some work to do, but we're staring to come into our own a little bit," Austin said. "Starting in week one to where we are now is daylight and dark.

"We're finally staring to get to the mountain top where we need to be before that district tournament gets here. We're starting to put the ball in play better and play better defense."

The Lady Champs look to avenge a rough defeat at the hands of Cornersville when they host the Lady Bulldogs today at 2 p.m.

"All the Marshall County teams are good, but if you can go out and have a good performance against them tomorrow, that would be good for our girls heading into the district tournament," Austin said.

Cascade still has a pair of District 9-A games to make up before the tourney gets underway on May 1. They head to McMinnville on Saturday to battle Boyd Christian at 1 and host Forrest on Tuesday night at 6.

"That will let us know where we stand and what we need to work on between now and next Thursday."