Championship ‘Cats

When Blake Mounce was named the Cashion baseball coach 11 years ago, he visited what would be his home field.

“I had to weed eat to find the bases and the mound,” he said.

That first year, Mounce had tidied up his baseball field, but only had 12 Wildcats to play on it.

His second year? “In the regional, I had nine kids on the field and one in the dugout,” he said. “And I didn’t have an assistant coach.”

It’s safe to say things have completely turned around in 2025.

Cashion’s completed its trek from an empty dugout to emptying its dugout for a championship dogpile last Saturday by defeating Oktaha 7-0 in the Class 2A-I state title game at Shawnee High School.

“It’s come a long way,” said Mounce afterward in a slightly decidedly understatement.

••• Make no mistake, Cashion has been building toward its first baseball state championship for several years.

But even Mounce wasn’t sure this would be the year.

The Wildcats were coming off a runner-up finish in 2024 in the only title game appearance in the program’s history.

But gone from that team were six major contributors, three of whom went on to play college ball and two others could have, but chose different paths.

“We had some guys you’d call freaks,” Mounce admitted. “So we were going to have to depend on some new kids this year. Who do we have? Who’s going to show up? Who’s going to work hard?”

As it turned out, most everyone on the roster - one that was decidedly larger than that of 2015 and 2016 showed up, worked hard… and produced.

Cashion won its first 14 games of the season and grabbed tournament titles in Tonkawa and Stroud (the Wildcats’ own Brexten Green Memorial Tournament was rained out).

The first loss was a month into the season when Cashion fell 5-3 to Class 6A’s Edmond North.

The subsequent win streak was decidedly shorter. The Wildcats won two straight before falling 3-1 to Kingfisher County rival Okarche, itself a Class A semifinalist.

Then came six more wins before a 4-3 loss to Calera at the Dibble Festival. The Wildcats did get a big win there, beating Oktaha, the team that runruled Cashion in last year’s state title game, 7-5.

Dibble (though the teams didn’t play there). Calera. Oktaha.

There was some foreshadowing in that late April round-robin event.

And, as it turned out, the defeat to Calera on April 25 would be Cashion’s last of the season.

The Wildcats closed out the regular season with four straight wins.

They were 27-3 and ranked No. 3 entering the state playoffs.

••• The 2024 version of Cashion was loaded with power.

This year’s model had some ability to knock it out of the park, but it was just built differently.

“We didn’t hit a lot of home runs,” Mounce said. “But we could base hit you up and down the lineup, 1 through 9. The bunt game was there 1 through 9. You had to pitch to everyone.

“And we could run.” The stats back him up. Cashion had 11 players who appeared in at least 30 games this season who hit .333 or better.

Nine players had 10 or more stolen bases on the season and four of those had 20 or more.

The top hitter proved to be Kellen Smith as the sophomore catcher led the team with a sparkling .515 average.

“Kellen had some growing pains last season, but he really showed up late in the season,” Mounce said. “This year he just kept getting better and better and he’s only a sophomore.”

Brian Nabavi turned in a .429 average and had 25 stolen bases.

Ryker Johnson’s 28 steals led the team and he hit for a .333 clip.

Zach Sisson’s average was .353 and he nabbed 20 free bases.

Jayden Bolton helped himself to 22 stolen bases and a .333 average.

Kyle Yowell was second on the team with his scorching .413 batting average while Aidan Berry hit .385. They combined for 20 steals.

Senior Maxx Higdon, a stalwart in the outfield since his freshman year, had his best season at the plate with a .382 average. He also had 10 steals.

The list keeps going. Rival Fields hit .339 and stole 13 bases. Ryder Lykins (.365) and Brody Nichols (.350) were also among the leaders in batting average.

They were also two of Cashion’s top three arms.

Nichols led the team this season with 56 2/3 innings of work and had an 8-2 record.

Lykins threw 34 1/3 innings and was 7-0.

Yowell, a junior, was 7-1 and threw 38 2/3 innings.

Neither had an ERA above 2.17.

Those bats and those arms seemingly kicked it into overdrive in the postseason.

It started with the regional, which Cashion hosted.

The Wildcats downed Chelsea 14-0, Hartshorn 10-0 and Meeker 10-0 to punch their fifth consecutive trip to state.

••• Cashion’s baseball history wasn’t non-existent before Mounce.

The Wildcats have produced All-State players, collegiate players, state tournament appearances and state tournament wins.

Twice Cashion had reached the state semifinals, the first being in 1986 in Class A and the second being 2013, also in Class A.

Mounce arrived on the scene two years later.

He trimmed that grass and planted the seeds of his program.

Those seeds sprouted into a state tournament appearance in 2021.

Cashion lost 12-3 to Silo in the 2A quarterfinals.

In 2022, Cashion was back.

This time the Wildcats beat Amber-Pocasset 15-6 in the quarterfinals, but Silo emerged victorious, 13-1, in the semis.

“I think the first couple of years, sure we wanted to win it,” said Mounce. “But I think there was this sense of just sort of being happy to be there.”

Silo not only beat Cashion those two years, but went on to win the state championship.

The Rebels had also won it in 2017 and 2018 and 2019 and then again in 2023. That’s an astonishing six straight titles (there was no season in 2020 due to COVID-19).

But during that stretch, Cashion kept getting better despite playing half the amount of baseball as most of the other 2A contenders, many of which don’t play football.

In 2024, there was no Silo in the 2A bracket.

Cashion upset No. 2 Dale on the way to the championship.

“Oktaha was just so good,” Mounce said. “It was going to be tough for anyone to beat them and that lineup.”

Cashion’s trip to state this year was its fifth in a row. Prior to the streak, the program had been to state a total of four times.

The Wildcats’ attitudes and expectations changed in that time.

“We weren’t just happy to be there,” Mounce said. “We went in feeling we had a chance to win it.”

First up was Dibble, the host of what turned into a 2A state tournament preview in April.

Cashion pounced on the sixth-ranked Demons early and won a 10-0 run rule.

Just as important, Nichols started the game, but Cashion scored early and often enough that he was able to pull his ace after just 49 pitches.

That made Nichols available Saturday, provided the Wildcats could get back to the championship.

The Wildcats were in the semifinals for a fourth consecutive year.

Next up was No. 2 Calera, the team that handed Cashion its last loss.

Yowell got the nod on the mound. Though not perfect, the right-hander was effective and held Calera to five runs over 4 1/3 innings.

It was more than good enough, though, as Cashion’s bats were electric.

The Wildcats tore through Bulldogs pitching like no other team this season in pounding out 16 hits in a 15-5 victory.

Smith and Berry had three hits apiece.

Smith drove in two runs and scored three times. Berry had an RBI and two runs scored.

Nabavi, Nichols and Lykins had two hits apiece. Yowell, Higdon, Fields and Lykins joined Smith in driving in two runs each.

Seven different Wildcats scored in the game.

For the second time ever, but the second straight year, Cashion was going to be playing for a baseball state championship.

••• Dale was most everyone’s pick to win 2A-I this season.

It was just the name on the front of the jersey and the 22 combined (fall and spring) baseball state championships pushing the Pirates.

They entered state 28-4, ranked No. 1 and had 26 first-place votes out of 30 in the last rankings.

But the Pirates didn’t bring their best to Seminole in the quarterfinals.

Oktaha stunned Dale 10-6 to move into the semifinals.

“We were keeping up with the game on our way over there,” Mounce said. “And when that happened, we knew if they (Oktaha) could beat Dale, then we sure felt like we could beat anyone.”

Oktaha wasn’t the same team in 2025 as the one that ran roughshod over the 2A field in 2024.

The Tigers were only ranked ninth and were a pedestrian 15-13 entering state.

But after knocking off Dale, the proud Tigers defeated No. 5 Preston 8-3 to set up a rematch for the state championship.

“Last year I think everyone felt Oktaha was unbeatable,” Mounce said. “Our kids felt they had a chance and gave it a good shot, but were almost surprised to be there.

“This year we weren’t surprised. We were ready to go and our confidence was extremely high.”

Mounce knew his team would face Nicolas Tolbert, Oktaha’s hard-throwing, 6-foot-5 right-hander who has committed to Wichita State.

But Mounce, like always, had a game plan.

“We know he throws hard, but also knew that he can have a tendency to get wild,” Mounce said. “We knew that after a certain number of pitches, he can start to gas out.”

So Cashion stepped to the plate with the mindset of taking a lot of pitches the first time through the lineup.

Tolbert held the Wildcats scoreless through two innings, but things started to break Cashion’s way in the third.

Tolbert was able to strike out Fields to lead off the inning, but the third strike got past catcher Ryder McCoy and Fields was able to reach first base.

Cashion’s base running, hitting and bunting took over.

Nichols put down a bunt and Tolbert slipped trying to field it, putting two Wildcats on base with nobody out.

Two batters later, Smith singled both of them home.

Berry made it 4-0 with a single that scored Smith and Sisson.

An error and a wild pitch in the fourth contributed to three more Cashion runs.

“Our ability to hit, run and put pressure on defenses was so big this year,” said Mounce. “It created a lot of our runs in that game.”

Nabavi finished 2 for 3 while Smith, Higdon, Berry and Nichols all had one hit apiece. Nabavi also accounted for an RBI while Smith and Berry each had two.

Meanwhile, Nichols never let Oktaha get anything going offensively.

The Tigers managed just five hits over seven innings.

Nichols struck out three and walked three and Cashion’s defense was nearly perfect with just one error.

“They have a tough lineup and for him to shut them out was amazing,” Mounce said. “That might have been the best I’ve seen him all year.”

A couple times during the game, Mounce thought about offering some advice to his starter.

“Then I decided, nope, I’m not going to say a word,” Mounce said. “I’m going to let him do his thing.”

After Nichols got the 21st out of the game, Cashion’s dugout emptied.

The Wildcats had completed a 33-3 season and were bringing home the state championship trophy.

It was a dominant season, but a more dominant playoffs.

Cashion went 6-0 with five shutouts. The Wildcats outscored their foes 66-5.

“To play the way we did the last two weeks was incredible,” Mounce said.

It all started with a weed eater and ended at the peak of baseball.

“It was kind of a shock at first,” Mounce said. “But this was fun. It was such a fun ride.”