Cheney gets out the bats in pair of wins over NE 49ers

Cheney’s AA American Legion baseball team got the bats going big time last Wednesday getting both a pair of baseball victories, and maybe a little payback, routing the Northeast 49ers 17-6 and 12-4 in games played at Deer Park.

The wins were the SummerHawks’ fifth straight and improved Cheney’s National League record to 8-5, good for second place, behind 13-1 Shadle Park. Cheney handed SP its only league loss so far.

“We’ve been hitting the ball well,” head coach Randy Elam said. “(We had) 23 hits last night (Wednesday),” making the Cheney coach happy considering his team was embarrassed by the 49ers by a 15-6 count in their first meeting.

Connor Pratt threw the first game. “He had a few moments where he had to bear down, buckle down,” Elam said. “It was kind of a tight game then we just had a real big inning,” Elam said, referring to the sixth inning where the SummerHawks scored 12 runs to break a 5-5 tie.

“I was a little fired up after that (15-6) game.” Elam said. “We’ve had a little bit different approach after that game.” Cheney got three hits from Ty Graham plus two-hit nights from Tanner “Bubba” Smith and Alex Berman, each adding a double in their team’s 11-hit night.

Smith threw the second game, “and did a nice job,” Elam said. “Tanner was coming off an injury so he got a little tired.”

“He didn’t tell me his arm was hurting so I’d check with him all the time,” Elam said. “He’s a kid that wants to go out there all the time and finish; he did and we ended up going out there and beating them 12-4.”

In the second game Cheney broke a 2-2 tie in the fourth, scoring four runs and broke it open – again – with a six-run sixth. Berman and Arthur each had three hits for Cheney while Kyle Kreiger hit safely twice.

Next up for Cheney is play in the Woodbat Classic where they host a pod at the Ballpark in Cheney that features Spanaway, Regina, Saskatchewan and Mead.

Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com